ABSTRACT
Sociologists and historians have long listened to each other fretting about the relation between history and the social sciences. The relevance of style or discourse was indicated a few years ago in one byplay between history and theory. The ordinary historian venturing into theory needs a breather during which he is under no commitment to give ideological support to the rational. The copiousness of Marion J. Levy, Jr. has a Victorian quality that might serve nicely certain needs in the construction of theory for historians. In the analysis of American population movements, good results were also produced by a method that used some of the same subdivided measurement, but in the service of definite theory. The lusher it becomes, the more excessive and decadent, the nearer may it bring the time when creative thought cannot do without the effort to create new, more elegant levels of theory.
