History as Past Sociology in the Work of Samuel P. Hays: A Review Essay

Abstract

This tastefully produced collection of sixteen essays, nearly all published previously, but in widely disparate journals, plus a long autobiographical introduction and a brief epilogue, affords an opportunity for evaluating the first two decades of Samuel P. Hays's contributions to American political and social history. Historians excel in different genres. Some are most proficient in the research monograph, some in the popular book or article, some on the editorial chair, some on the lecture platform, some, whose talents remain largely hidden from the professional community, in the small class or tutorial. Hays's métier is the provocative, speculative essay. And while it might be feared that this form of scholarly communication would date more quickly than others, in the case of Hays, at least, the essays remain fresh. Indeed, their grouping here encourages the reader to make connections between arguments and to realize the larger significance of points he may have missed or bypassed when he first perused the papers under separate covers. It is a book to muse over, scribble on, steal ideas from, rave at-in short, a book designed to stimulate thought.

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