History and Sociology in France

In the late 19th century and early 20th, with the coming of age of sociology in France, the idea that there could be a “science” of history was the subject of much and varied debate. Although sociology was from its origins in competition with the discipline of history, it too was interested in history as a form of objective knowledge. Many of sociology's founders believed that by retracing historical processes, they could make a clean break with abstraction and metaphysics. By the end of the 19th century, the science of history would for its part draw some valuable lessons from the emerging methodology of sociology. This book focuses on this dialogue of the two neighboring sciences.