1. Chapter 8
Historical-Comparative
Research

2. History Of Historical-comparative
Research
• Weber and the other great classical
sociological thinkers:
– Most notably Marx and Engels, and Durkheim,
introduced HC design as a two-step process
• Exemplary Historical-Comparative
Research Studies
– Peasant Wars
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3. History Of Historical-comparative
Research
• Eric Wolf ’s Peasant Wars of the Twentieth
Century
• Upheavals were violent, multifaceted changes in:
– Political systems, class structure, culture and ideology,
and economic organization
• Capitalist penetration of the countryside is the
independent variable
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4. History Of Historical-comparative
Research
• Revolution redefined as a peasant war is the
dependent variable
– Revolutions
• Skocpol’s question was this:
– Why did France, Russia, and China experience massive
revolutions, upheavals marked by transformations of the:
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5. History Of Historical-comparative
Research
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6. History Of Historical-comparative
Research
• Anderson’s dependent variables are nationalism
as an ideology and nationalist movements
• Martin Riesebrodt
• Przeworski
• Kenneth Roberts
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7. Characteristics Of Historical-comparative
Research
• Some examples
– The studies use small samples
– The researchers examine large volumes of
secondary and primary sources
– HC research faces challenges in establishing
falsifiability
– Theories are strongly integrated
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8. When And How To Use Historical-comparative
Analysis
• Some examples
– The researchers treated societies as the units
of analysis
– Primary and secondary documents can be
important sources of information
– Many social scientists rely on historians to do
the “grunt work” of historical research
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