ABSTRACT
The difference between a historical and a generalizing strategy is greater, in our opinion, than the difference between quantitative and qualitative research, or micro- and macrosociology, or formal and informal theory. A historically oriented strategy alone does not create a body of generalized knowledge about social behavior. Its focus is on particular effects; it uses laws, but their significance is purely instrumental; it searches for multiple causes, not the nature, conditions, and consequences of an analytically formulated abstract process. If in fact sociology were a historically oriented discipline, there would be no reason to complain of the slow rate at which its generalized knowledge accumulates. Strategies of research in sociology may more often be historical than generalizing; but the ultimate goal is general knowledge of social behavior. Comparative sociology has some equally abstract formulations, and its comparisons are sometimes made not for their intrinsic interest, but because they are most informative with respect to a general social process.
