Tilly, Charles - Dimensions of the Historical Process by Leszek Nowak, 1992

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Dimensions of the Historical Process by Leszek NowakReview by: Charles TillyHistory and Theory, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Feb., 1991), pp. 112-114Published by: Wiley for Wesleyan University

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112 REVIEWESSAYS

differsn methodand aim from the naturalsciences,Berlintouchesupon the

relationshipf history o art.The affinitys notmerelya matterof literary tyle,

but rather s groundednthenatureof historical xplanation,which s toa large

degreearrangementf the discovered actsin patternswhichsatisfyus because

theyaccordwith ife thevarietyof humanexperience ndactivity as weknow

it andcan maginet. Howcanthe historian chieve hiskindof understanding?

Fidelity o the evidence,objectivity,knowledgeof relevant ncillarydisciplines,

all arenecessary utnot sufficient. nlike henatural cientist,he historian annot

function only as an outside observer; ympathyand imaginationarerequired

in orderto enterinto the lives of peoplewho possesseddistinctivemodes of

thought, eeling,andaction.Greathistorians,ike iterary rtists,areable o evoke

the densityof texture, he various evelsand dimensionsof humanlife in the

past.12Thesecommentsdovetailneatlywithsomeof Clive'saperus. Theyde-rive depthand resonance roma philosophical radition hat reachesback to

Vico,forward o Droysen nd Dilthey,and provides ustenance o historianswho

continue o regardhistoryasa humanisticdiscipline. ohnClivewasamongthis

goodlycompany.His finalbook,sensitive ndprobing,will be readwithpleasure

both by historiansand by a moregeneralaudience.

DORIS S. GOLDSTEIN

Yeshiva University

11. Isaiah Berlin, The Concept of Scientific History, in Conceptsand CategoriesNew York,

1979), 132.

12. Ibid., 128-142.

DIMENSIONSFTHEHISrORICALROCESS.dited with an introduction by Leszek

Nowak. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1988. Pp. 312.

By dimensions Leszek Nowak means the three sides of a metaphorical cube

definedby the polarities individualversus holistic, civilizationalversus conflic-

tual, and adaptiveversustransformational, all approaches to the analysis of

historical change as a whole. The first dimension concerns whether singular at-

tributesof individuals or characteristicsof global entitiessuch as societies ex-

plain more of general social processes. The second treats the degree to which

all members of a global entity have and act upon common interests. The third

contrasts a view of social life as tending toward equilibrium with its environ-

ment, with a conception of change as immanent and as pregnantwith new prin-

ciples of organization. Treated as dichotomies, the three dimensions yield eight

types of historicaltheory. In such a taxonomy,Dimensions of the Historical Pro-

cess contains papersrepresenting hreeof the eight:individualistic-civilizational-







REVIEW ESSAYS 113

transformationalfor example,Habermas n historicalmaterialism, s discussedin Axel Honneth's paper); globalistic-civilizational-adaptivefor example,KrzysztofNiedzwiadek's aperon the modesof spiritualproduction ); nd

globalistic-conflictual-transformationalforexample,DickPelson a non-Hegelianconceptionof the newclass ).

Nowakuses he scheme oorganize is wholevolume.After hreegeneral apers

onanalyzing imensions f the historical rocess AndrzejKlawiter, ouisKries-berg, and I. C. Jarvie), he book proceeds o fourexamplesof the individual-

civilizational-transformationalpproach AxelHonneth;PiotrBuczkowski;jointpaperbyAdamBartoszek,EwaBogalska-Czajkowska,ndWaldemar zaj-kowski;and a final paperbyMadrzejMalkiewicz);our more contributionsl-

lustratingheglobalistic-civilizational-adaptivepproacha collaborative aperbyAndrzejKlawiter,KrzystofLastowski,LeszekNowak,andWojciechPatryas,followedby individualpapers romAndrzejKlawiter,MichalWitkowski,and

KrzysztofNiedzwiadek);nd a full sevenessaysunder he headingglobalistic-

conflictual-transformationalThomasSoderqvist,Dick Pels, Leszek Nowak,GrzegorzTomczak,MarekNiewiadomski, ndrzejFalkiewicz, nd heduo Katar-zynaPaprzycka nd LeszekNowak).The book as a wholehasno generalargu-

ment;it illustratesa taxonomy.

Disconcertingly,he assembledauthors gnorehistorians'mostcommonap-proachto theiranalyses,whichassumesdistinct ndividualswho have diverse

interestsndwhosestruggles roduceunstable daptationso environmentalon-ditions.NeitherNowaknor his fellow-authors xplainthat neglect.No doubtthe best explanationcomes from the omnipresence f Marxist houghtin the

Polish environmentwithinwhichmostof the authorsgrewup,and whichtheyare nowtryingto transform. n the book'snineteenpaperswe see a collectiveeffort o movebeyondMarxismwhileretaining Marxist enseof directionand

coherencenhistory.TheyexemplifyNowak'sownlong-term ffort o construct

anon-Marxist istoricalmaterialism.ndeed,most of thepapersgroupedundertheglobalistic-conflictual-transformationalubric eekexplicitly o forwardNo-wak'stheoreticalprogram.

Much of the effort,alas,consists of wordsabout wordsaboutwordsratherthan wordsabouthistory.No doubtexperiencedeaders f Historyand Theoryhavebuiltuptheirresistanceo high-levelphilosophizing.Confrontedwithsuchawordpile, owever, workinghistorian's eart inks.The bookoffersmore hanthreehundred agesostensiblydevoted o history hatcontainnot one sustained

discussionof a genuinehistorical ituation,not a singleactualhistorian's hesisormethod,and no body whatsoever f historical vidence. nanalyzinghe in-

formation ndknowledgeociety hatheseesasreplacinghenineteenth-century

societyof material roduction,orinstance,ThomasSoderqvistxplicitly eclareshisuncertaintyhat sucha new agehas comeupon us,eschewsanyexaminationof theevidence hereon,but rushes o spell out the ways n whichthe existenceof sucha societyrequires s to revisehistoricalmaterialism.Reading ffortsofthis sort induces the unlikely combination of amazement, mpatience,and







114 REVIEWESSAYS

boredom: how can they go on and on at that level of abstraction, unsmudged

by any contact with historical experience? How can they do so when most of

the authors are living from day to day through one of the great historical ex-

periences of our time?Not one vivid, vigorous, and arresting analysis of any historical process-

including the constructionor dismantlingof state-socialist regimes appears any-

where in this wearying book. The neglect of history and historiography produces

confidence-shaking blunders, as when Axel Honneth uncritically appropriates

Harry Braverman'sanalysis of deskilling, which even leftist historians of capi-

talist industry now regard as at best grossly oversimplifiedand at worst deeply

erroneous. I. C. Jarvie's self-satisfied retrospecton the conception of social class

presented in a book he published in 1972, and Louis Kriesberg'sinconclusivegeneral discussion of relations between consensus and conflict, leave a reader

wondering why Jarvie and Kriesbergmade the effort,not to mention why Nowak

printed their essays. I cannot measure the relative contributions of muddy tau-

tology and inadequate English in the text of Adam Bartoszek, Ewa Bogalska-

Czajkowska,WaldemarCzajkowski, and Andrzej Malkiewicz,which ends charac-

teristically with these obscure words: It seems to be obvious that the struggle

between groups generated by dominating form of social division of labour is

a dominating kind of struggle. Hence the thesis about class struggle is as far

valid as valid is assumption that class division is a basic form of the social divi-

sion (118). Maybe it scans better in Polish.

The book provides, to be sure, some brighter moments. Andrzej Klawiter's

lucid explication and reconstruction of Marx on successive social formations,

for example, usefully lays out alternative interpretationsas tree diagrams, even

if it fails to confront Eric Hobsbawm's conflicting interpretationin the introduc-

tion to the English-language selection from the Grundrisse published as Pre-

CapitalistEconomic Formations. Elsewhere,Dick Pels kicks energeticallyat Alvin

Gouldner's putatively dialectical analysis of the New Class. Such moments are

few and far between. If you like your history unhistorical and your Marxism

or post-Marxism unrelievedly abstract, you have found your book.

CHARLES TILLY

New Schoolfor Social Research





Tilly, Charles - Dimensions of the Historical Process by Leszek Nowak, 1992

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