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PARTISAN REVIEW
been unambiguously fruitful. The mania for quantification char–
acteristic of some areas of the social sciences has proved infectious ;
some historians have also been afflicted by "this insidiously corrupt–
ing mental deformation." Moreover, he adds, it may very well be
that the new outlook has become too successful for its own good.
There seems to be a revival of an older-style form of narrative his–
tory , and this in Stone's view may not be a bad thing. I agree with
him, as I do with most of what he has to say in his instructive and
eminently readable book. But at this point I would draw the implica–
tions rather differently than he does . He writes as though historians
should borrow eclectically from the social sciences but maintain their
proper distance from them. I think that there is a core of what I
would call "social theory" - to do with how human actors are to be
conceptualized, their actions understood, and social institutions ex–
plained - which is shared in common by history and the totality of
the social sciences . Problems of social theory are inevitably bound to
be controversial; but historians should be prepared to participate
directly in discussion of these problems and to contribute directly to
their elucidation . Here history and the social sciences merge in an
integral way .
ANTHONY GIDDENS
A BIT OF ESPIONAGE?
AFTER LONG SILENCE.
By
Michael Straight.
W.W. Norton
&
Com–
pany.
$17.50.
Like other autobiographical writmgs centered on ques–
tionable political conduct, this book invites the reader to sit in judg–
ment of the integrity of its au thor. Yet one never knows to what
degree such accounts are designed to vindicate unseemly or foolish
behavior and to what extent they are exercises in genuine self–
revelation. Above all, one never knows what is left unsaid. With all
this in mind, I doubt that this book seriously distorts the record, and
I am favorably impressed by Straight's efforts at honesty and his
willingness to reveal many quite unflattering aspects of his personal-
