History refers to the recorded past of literate societies and the scientific field that researches that past. While scientific study of the political past dates back to the fifth century B.C.E. and works of ancient historians such as Herodotus and Thucydides, scientific study of the past related to the areas of society (social structure and social relations), culture, and economy dates to the 19th century. This entry will focus on the most notable examples of social history and historical sociology. In the 19th century, theoretical approaches of historicism and historical materialism left a major influence on both fields.

Historicism was based on the idea that society and culture cannot be understood, described, and explained by general deterministic theories that are used in natural sciences. The historical nature of any society and culture necessitates the use of a historical approach to understand them in their individuality and particularity. Historicism uses relativism, both in understanding and ethical judgment of cultures and societies. Some of the most influential proponents of historicism were Wilhelm Dilthey, Max Weber, Heinrich Rickert, Ernst Troeltsch, and Wilhelm Windelband. German philosophers, sociologists, and economists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels are seen as creators of historical materialism. They studied history as a means to better understand contemporary society and to predict future developments.

The journal Annals was founded in 1929 by French historians Marc Bloch and Lucien Febvre. This journal, as well as the historiographical current named after him - the annales school - promoted a view of history that went beyond the study of political events and paid attention to many aspects of social life. On the other hand, the focus was on the history of "long duration", that is, on long-term processes. Although members of this approach differed in their methods and topics, their shared approach focused more on social, cultural, and economic history and development, instead of focusing on political history.

Bloch promoted a view of history that went beyond the study of political events and paid attention to many aspects of social life. Bloch also employed the perspective he called total history (histoire total). Total history represents an approach to history that focuses on the mentalities (mentalities) of people, that is, their attitudes, ideas, and beliefs.

In the book The Historian’s Craft (1953), Bloch presents history as ‘the science of men in time’, an interdisciplinary field that is part science, part craft, and part art. All of history should be seen as one single entity and can't be compartmentalized. All historical periods and all aspects of social life are interrelated and connected. Focus should be on people's beliefs and customs, and not on individual political events. Historians should: use all types of documents available to them (texts, maps, places’ names, folklore, aerial photographs, and tools); interrogate that evidence; interpret the evidence in the context of the time and the place they belong to; and refrain from passing moral judgments according to personal moral code.

Bloch compared history with natural sciences and concluded that natural scientists deal with phenomena that are in their consciousness, while historians deal with psychosocial phenomena that exist, not only in the minds of historians but also in the consciousness of people who lived throughout history. This difference between history and natural sciences often leads to historians having numerous different interpretations of historical events. Despite this, Bloch believed that should and could strive for scientific validity. One of the methods that historians can apply to ensure validity is the comparative method. He stressed that there are two ways this method can be used. Searching for universal phenomena that exist in all times and places is the first way. The second way is to compare neighboring societies or societies that existed in the same historical period, and this was Bloch's preferred way for applying the comparative method as it brings more precise results.  

Fernand Braudel continued this intellectual tradition, and theoretically expanded and consolidated it. Braudel's approach was based on the four most important principles. The first concerns the unit of analysis and refers to the necessity of studying what Braudel called the "world economy" (économie monde). The second principle is that multiple social "temporalities" should be studied and especially those of long duration. The third principle refers to the need for an interdisciplinary approach in the social sciences, i.e., removing the boundaries between history and sociology, geography, political science, and economics. The fourth principle refers to the introduction of the distinction between the market and capitalism. Braudel's concept "world economy" does not mean the economy of the entire planet, but refers to the international economic system that has its own economic structure, including the division of labor.

In Great Britain historical approach developed by Communist Party Historian’s Group became very influential, with notable historians such as E. P. Thompson, Dorothy Thompson, Christopher Hill, Rodney Hilton, Eric Hobsbawm, Maurice Dobb, George Rudé. Some of the most influential historical sociologists in the second half of the 20th century are Reinhard Bendix, Theda Skocpol, S. N. Eisenstadt, Barrington Moore, Charles Tilly, Michael Mann, Anthony Giddens, and John A. Hall.

World systems theory was created by sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein. This theory combines the theoretical positions of the dependency theory developed by Andre Frank and Samir Amin and the historical approach of Fernand Braudel. From Braudel's approach Wallerstein adopted the principle that the unit of analysis should be the world economy, and that it should be studied with an interdisciplinary approach. Wallerstein sees the world systems approach more as an epistemological perspective than as a macro theory. He rejects universalist theoretical explanations and promotes the historicity of all social sciences. Wallerstein also rejects supposed opposition of nomothetic aistorism, on the one hand, and ideographic historicism, on the other. Both of these epistemological approaches need to be combined into a perspective he calls the "historical system" in order to advance science.

Big History represents an interdisciplinary approach that strives to unite scientific knowledge from natural sciences and social sciences. The International Big History Association defines its goal as such: “attempt to understand, in a unified and interdisciplinary way, the history of the Cosmos, Earth, Life, and Humanity”. Some of the most important representatives of this approach are Russian scientists Leonid Grinin, Dmitri Bondarenko, Andrey Korotayev, and Peter Turchin. Big History strives to “develop a unified and interdisciplinary history of the Cosmos, Earth, Life, and Humanity. It also seeks to develop system forecasting of social, political, demographic, ethnic and cultural processes at regional and global levels”. The aims of this approach and the center are: to develop forecasting systems for social, political, economical, and cultural processes at the global and regional level; to explore evolutionary processes, and their regularities, trends, and mechanisms; to examine the history of the interrelation of society and environment; to study world history and global processes; to promote international and interdisciplinary collaboration in order to better understand big historical processes; to use acquired knowledge to promote humanitarian goals and improve political, economical and social development.

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