Sociologists Read Historians, Historians Read Sociologists

Book Review: Kilin A.P. (2018) Private Trade and Credit in the Urals during NEP: Economic, Political and Social Aspects, Ekaterinburg: Ural Federal University (in Russian)

Abstract

There are several distinct ways in which historians and sociologists read each other and use what they read in their own work—ranging from the one which claims to be a fundamental integration of historical sociology to the use of sociological theories and empirical data by historians. Along with the enrichment of the conceptual and empirical apparatus and other potentially useful effects, such intersections are also associated with certain difficulties. The proposed (micro) typology serves as a context for reflection on the book by the historian Alexei Kilin (2018) “Private Trade and Credit in the Urals during NEP: Economic, Political, and Social Aspects”. The fundamental and deeply grounded statement by the author regarding NEP as a management model is based on modeling theory. The appeal to the theory of the social construction of reality does not look so convincing, but it pushes the comprehension of the NEP era in a certain direction.