Big Structures, Large Processes, Huge Comparisons

This lively and erudite essay addresses a broad, central question: How can we improve our understanding of the large-scale social and political changes that transformed the world of the nineteenth century and are transforming our world today? "In this short, brilliant book Tilly suggests a way to think about theories of historical social change....This book should find attentive readers both in undergraduate courses and in graduate seminars. It should also find appreciative readers, for Tilly is a writer as well as a scholar." -Choice -- CONTENTS: Such Intellectual Equipment. Worrying About Social Change ; Thinkers Face Change ; What Was Happening? ; Big Structures, Large Processes, Huge Comparisons ; What To Do -- Four Pernicious Postulates. False Principles ; Society Is a Thing Apart ; Mental Events cause Social Behavior ; " Social Change" Is A Coherent Phenomenon ; Stage Theories -- Four More Pernicious Postulates. Differentiation Is A Progressive Master Process ; Differentiation versus Integration ; Change, Strain, Disorder ; Illegitimate versus Legitimate Force -- Comparing. Eradicating Pernicious Postulates ; Will Total History Save Us? ; The Case For Huge (But Not Stupendous) Comparisons ; No Safety In Numbers ; Ways Of Seeing ; Looking At Comparisons -- Individualizing Comparisons. The Will To Individualize ; Kings Or People? ; Cracks In The Foundation -- Universalizing Comparisons. The Decline Of Natural History ; Models of Revolution; Theda Skocpol's Revolutions --Finding Variation. How And When To Look For Variation ; Barrington Moore Compares -- Encompassing Comparisons. Encompassing The World ; Stein Rokkan Encompasses ; Rokkan's "Conceptual Maps Of Europe" ; What's Wrong? What Should We Do About It? -- Conclusions. The Tasks At Hand.