This book provides a detailed reconstruction of the process of formation of the modern concept of society as an objective entity from the 1820s onwards, thus helping to better understand the shaping of the modern world and the nature of the current crisis of modernity. The concept has exerted considerable influence over the last two centuries, during which time many people have conceived themselves and behave as members of a society, and social scientists have explained human subjectivities and conducts as social effects. For both groups, society exists as a very real phenomenon. Historical inquiry shows, however, that the modern concept of society is no more than a historically contingent way of imagining and making sense of the human world.

In Postsocial History: An Introduction, historian Miguel A. Cabrera points to the crisis of modernity as a locus for the collapse of social historical models. Previously established theories of social change and social relations are proving insufficient, calling for the emergence of a new social historical theory. Cabrera finds the answer in language, which, more than being a mere communicative tool, he believes to be capable of playing an active role in the forces of social change. Postsocial History is a lucid and unprecedented account of the need for a new, modern theoretical model. By arguing convincingly for the inclusion of language in that model, Cabrera awakens a revolutionary new approach to historiography. This book will prove indispensable to historians, and to social scientists in general, who are dissatisfied with the old paradigms and seek new ways of addressing the challenges of social research.

In Postsocial History: An Introduction, historian Miguel A. Cabrera points to the crisis of modernity as a locus for the collapse of social historical models. Previously established theories of social change and social relations are proving insufficient, calling for the emergence of a new social historical theory. Cabrera finds the answer in language, which, more than being a mere communicative tool, he believes to be capable of playing an active role in the forces of social change. Postsocial History is a lucid and unprecedented account of the need for a new, modern theoretical model. By arguing convincingly for the inclusion of language in that model, Cabrera awakens a revolutionary new approach to historiography. This book will prove indispensable to historians, and to social scientists in general, who are dissatisfied with the old paradigms and seek new ways of addressing the challenges of social research.