What is the use of social theory to historians, and of history to social theorists? In clear and energetic prose, a pre--eminent cultural historian here offers a far--reaching response to these deceptively simple questions. In this classic text, now revised and updated in its second edition, Peter Burke reviews afresh the relationship between the fields of history and the social sciences and their tentative convergence in recent decades. Burke first examines what uses historians have made -- or might make -- of the models, methods, and concepts of the social sciences, and then analyzes some of the intellectual conflicts, such as the opposition between structure and human agency, which are at the heart of the tension between history and social theory. Throughout, he draws from a broad range of cultures and periods to illustrate how history, in turn, has been used to create and validate social theories. This new edition brings the book up to date with the addition of examples and discussions of new topics such as social capital, globalization and post--colonialism. The second edition of History and Social Theory will continue to stimulate both students and scholars across a range of disciplines with its challenging assessment of the roles of history and social science today.

彼得•伯剋，齣生於1937年，英國當代著名曆史學傢。畢業於牛津大學，獲博士學位。現為劍橋大學文化史榮休教授、伊曼紐爾學院研究員。

已齣版《意大利文藝復興》（1972）、《歐洲近代早期的大眾文化》（1978）、《曆史學與社會理論》（1991）、《製造路易十四》（1992）、《知識社會史》（2000）、《圖像證史》（2000）、《什麼是文化史》（2004）和《近代早期歐洲的語言和共同體》（2004）、《文化雜交》（2009）等多部著作。