The future of class in history : what's left of the social?

Unifying concepts are essential when studying history. They provide students and scholars with ways to organize their thoughts, research, and writings. However, these concepts are also the focus of myriad conflicts within the field. Social history has experienced more than its share of such conflicts since its inception some forty years ago. In recent times the fields of “the social” and of “culture” have sometimes been presented as mutually exclusive and even hostile. Once again, conceptual innovation in history has been cast as a closure by which the new drives out the old: in this case, cultural history radically displacing social history. The Future of Class in History analyzes the effect of the conflict that followed the “turn to culture” in historical work by examining the use of class and demonstrates how practitioners in multiple fields can collaborate to produce the highest quality scholarship. “Offers new ways of thinking about ‘class’ and ‘society’ in a world in which such categories have been radically called into question.”—Sherry Ortner, University of California, Los Angeles “Brilliantly charts social history’s past achievement, present dilemma, and future promise in a work distinguished by intellectual openness and generosity.”—James A. Epstein, Vanderbilt University “Eley and Nield seek to rescue the deluded follower of social history from the enormous condescension of the cultural turn. They succeed admirably, making the case for a new hybrid socio-cultural history.”—Donald Reid, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill “This terrific double act has once again produced a text that demands to be read by all those tired of the juxtaposition of social and cultural histories and still interested in the problematic of class and the politics of its past and present.”—James Vernon, University of California, Berkeley “Eley and Nield tackle a contentious debate with a gracious plea for collaboration. Their strong desire to get past the ‘culture wars’ and to engage social and cultural historians in fruitful dialogue is a welcome move, stylishly executed.”—Philippa Levine, University of Southern California Geoff Eley is Professor of History at the University of Michigan.Keith Nield is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Hull.

Unifying concepts are essential when studying history. They provide students and scholars with ways to organize their thoughts, research, and writings. However, these concepts are also the focus of myriad conflicts within the field. Social history has experienced more than its share of such conflicts since its inception some forty years ago. In recent times the fields of “the social” and of “culture” have sometimes been presented as mutually exclusive and even hostile. Once again, conceptual innovation in history has been cast as a closure by which the new drives out the old: in this case, cultural history radically displacing social history. The Future of Class in History analyzes the effect of the conflict that followed the “turn to culture” in historical work by examining the use of class and demonstrates how practitioners in multiple fields can collaborate to produce the highest quality scholarship.

“Offers new ways of thinking about ‘class’ and ‘society’ in a world in which such categories have been radically called into question.”

—Sherry Ortner, University of California, Los Angeles

“Brilliantly charts social history’s past achievement, present dilemma, and future promise in a work distinguished by intellectual openness and generosity.”

—James A. Epstein, Vanderbilt University

“Eley and Nield seek to rescue the deluded follower of social history from the enormous condescension of the cultural turn. They succeed admirably, making the case for a new hybrid socio-cultural history.”
—Donald Reid, University of North Carolinaat Chapel Hill

“This terrific double act has once again produced a text that demands to be read by all those tired of the juxtaposition of social and cultural histories and still interested in the problematic of class and the politics of its past and present.”

—James Vernon, University of California, Berkeley

“Eley and Nield tackle a contentious debate with a gracious plea for collaboration. Their strong desire to get past the ‘culture wars’ and to engage social and cultural historians in fruitful dialogue is a welcome move, stylishly executed.”
—Philippa Levine, University of Southern California

Geoff Eley is Professor of History at the University of Michigan.

Keith Nield is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Hull.

Unifying concepts are essential when studying history. They provide students and scholars with ways to organize their thoughts, research, and writings. However, these concepts are also the focus of myriad conflicts within the field. Social history has experienced more than its share of such conflicts since its inception some forty years ago. In recent times the fields of the social and of culture have sometimes been presented as mutually exclusive and even hostile. Once again, conceptual innovation in history has been cast as a closure by which the new drives out the old: in this case, cultural history radically displacing social history. The Future of Class in History analyzes the effect of the conflict that followed the turn to culture in historical work by examining the use of class and demonstrates how practitioners in multiple fields can collaborate to produce the highest quality scholarship. Offers new ways of thinking about class and society in a world in which such categories have been radically called into question. Sherry Ortner, University of California, Los Angeles Brilliantly charts social historys past achievement, present dilemma, and future promise in a work distinguished by intellectual openness and generosity. James A. Epstein, Vanderbilt University Eley and Nield seek to rescue the deluded follower of social history from the enormous condescension of the cultural turn. They succeed admirably, making the case for a new hybrid socio-cultural history. Donald Reid, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill This terrific double act has once again produced a text that demands to be read by all those tired of the juxtaposition of social and cultural histories and still interested in the problematic of class andthe politics of its past and present. James Vernon, University of California, Berkeley Eley and Nield tackle a contentious debate with a gracious plea for collaboration. Their strong desire to get past the culture wars and to engage social and cultural historians in fruitful dialogue is a welcome move, stylishly executed. Philippa Levine, University of Southern California Geoff Eley is Professor of History at the University of Michigan. Keith Nield is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Hull. Unifying concepts are essential to the study of history, enabling students and scholars to organize their ideas, research and writing. However, such concepts are also the focus of ongoing, sometimes heated, conflict. In recent times ""social"" and ""cultural"" history have sometimes been presented as mutually exclusive. Once again, conceptual innovation in history has been cast as a closure in which the new drives out the old: in this case, cultural history radically displaces social history. But esteemed historians and theorists Geoff Eley and Keith Nield suggest ways to break through the logjam, by combining the post-structuralist critique of knowledge with certain registers of structuralist argument. ""The Future of Class in History"" analyses the conflict that followed historians' ""cultural turn"" by examining the use of class, and demonstrates how practitioners in multiple, sometimes conflicting fields can work collaboratively to produce the highest quality scholarship. Geoff Eley & Keith Nield. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 203-252) And Index.