The problem of historical change has come to assume central importance among English-speaking social scientists in the past ten to 15 years. Much attention has been focused on how we relate institutions and institutional change to actions, and how we think of history as the outcome of this process. This book takes a fresh look at both Marxist and non-Marxist positions in this debate, examining in detail the work of Hobsbawm, Thompson, Cohen, Althusser, Giddens and Habermas amongst others. The author argues that both functionalism and methodological individualism, and the various attempts to reconcile these extremes, are untenable. Drawing on classical Marxism, analytical philosophy and recent historical work, he has produced a contribution to the debate, which could affect profoundly its terms in the future. The work is aimed at undergraduates and graduates in social and political theory, sociology, politics and Marxist theory.
- ISBN10 0745601790
- ISBN13 9780745601793
- Publish Date 24 September 1987
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 11 April 1995
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Polity Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 280
- Language English