ABSTRACT
The renewed interest in comparative studies of social change dates from World War II. This intellectual repercussion of the war and its aftermath is most apparent in the discontinuities of interest which have marked the work of American social scientists in recent decades. Before World War II American scholars devoted their primary attention to the study of American society. Even if one considers the tremendous popularity of theories of social evolution in the United States before the 1920s, one is struck by the fact that these theories were largely applied in Social Darwinist fashion to an interpretation of the competitive economic struggle. The predominant American concern was domestic, in contrast with the trend in Europe, where these theories originated and where they were used to interpret the encounter between the advanced industrial societies of Europe and the peoples and cultures of colonial and dependent areas. With the notable exception of anthropologists, this intellectual 'insularity' of American social scientists may be related to America's anti-colonial heritage, just as the renewed interest in comparative studies may be related to America's world wide political involvements since World War II.
