fascinating site, thanks. I hadn't been aware that the SSRC was doing that. Some of those people are very, very smart, knowledgeable, and worth listening to. (Others are not, but that's only to be expected.)
Skocpol started out as a historical sociologist. Goldstone still is. But the overlap between historical sociology and comparative politics is pretty large, and it's often hard to tell those folks apart (and unnecessary also). Any intro to comparative politics that doesn't include Barrington Moore and Skocpol on the syllabus, for example, isn't worth taking.
As for Huntington and order, you're absolutely right--but then that's been one of Skocpol's focuses as well. In fact, her chief contribution to the study of revolution was to "bring the state back in," as another of her books put it. That is, she stresses that revolutions are never created or won by the revolutionaries, but rather created and lost by the ancien regime--so that's the place to look. Revolution is thus best understood as a breakdown of political order, hence the overlap in their research agendas. But this isn't really my area (more tg's), so I'll shut up now.
tb@backtowork.com |
