Varities of Time in Comparative Historical Analysis

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Comparative historical analysis (CHA) has long recognized the importance of time in studying the past and at the same time engaged in lively debates about what elements of time matter and how to properly conceptualize them. These debates have center around the difference between two broad categories of time: measurable, clock-like, physical time and qualitative, social, historical time. The papers on this panel explore elements of time that fall under these two categories of time. Mat Wilson's paper on sequencing covers one element of physical time. Jorgen Moller explores how the hindsight bias skews our understanding of past by reading history backwards. Gerry Munck's paper on time series and critical junctures and Marcus Kreuzer on the temporal foundations of CHA cover both categories of time. Overall, the paper's contribute to other recent efforts to become more explicit in how we think about time when studying the past.

Sub Unit

• DIVISION 7: Politics and History

Individual Presentations

• Sequencing and Democratization - Matthew Charles Wilson, University of South Carolina; David Andersen, Department of Political Science, Aarhus University

• When Causes are Distant and Effects Persist - Gerardo L. Munck, University of Southern California

• Physical Time, Historical Time and the Study of the Past in CHA - Marcus Kreuzer, Villanova University

• The Black Convention Movement and the Temporal Construction of Southern Politics - Paul E. Herron, Providence College

Chair

• Stephen E. Hanson College of William and Mary

Discussants

• Richard F. Bensel Cornell University

• Steven White Syracuse University