本书深度和广度表明现代社会学与历史在弥合先前很深的缺口中已经走得多么远。有些社会学家在理论水平和方法论水平上学会去克服在许多大学毕业生培养规划上仍旧极其流行的历史地方主义,而有些历史学家在工作中已经对社会学的概念和工具感到迫切需要。社会学和历史的本身实际研究更好地证明了在当前发展了的工作中它们之间是多么相互有关和相互渗透;所以编者在本书中列入大量的专门研究是正确的。他们对社会学与历史之间的界线所下的定义(拒绝在“特殊化历史”与“一般化社会学”之间作简单的区别)是非常有分寸的:“……历史家的兴趣集中在作用和相互作用的继续和联系以及作为象征性会合点的起作用的个人。另一方面社会学家关心的是相互作用模式的制度化和变化, The depth and breadth of this book show how far modern sociology and history have gone in bridging the previously deep gaps. Some sociologists learn at theoretical and methodological levels to overcome historical endemicism, which is still prevalent in many university graduates’ programs, and some historians have desperately needed the concepts and tools of sociology at work. The sociological and historical realities of their own research better demonstrate how interrelated and interdependent they are in the work that is currently being developed; it is therefore correct for editors to include a great deal of specialized research in this book. Their definition of the boundary between sociology and history (refusing to make a simple distinction between “specialized history” and “general sociology”) is highly proportionate: "... historians’ interest is concentrated in The continuation and connection of roles and interactions, and the functioning of individuals as symbolic meeting points.On the other hand, sociologists are concerned with the institutionalization and change of modes of interaction,