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Continuity and innovation in the history of political science: The case of Charles Merriam
Author(s) -
Ounnell John G.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
journal of the history of the behavioral sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.216
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1520-6696
pISSN - 0022-5061
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6696(199204)28:2<133::aid-jhbs2300280203>3.0.co;2-l
Subject(s) - mistake , historicism , politics , environmental ethics , sociology , social science , philosophy , epistemology , political science , law
Charles Merriam has been characteristically treated, in historical accounts of American political science, as effecting a radical break with the nineteenth‐century tradition and with the historicism that characterized the Columbia school from which he emerged. Although it would be a mistake to depreciate his contribution to subsequent political science, we misunderstand both Merriam and the contemporary discipline if we project images of the present on his work and fail to see the degree to which he embraced both the form and content of the study of politics initiated by his teachers William Dunning and John Burgess.