The program's premise is that history is a space of inquiry that is critical to all human understanding, and that The New School for Social Research is a natural place for historians, philosophers, and social scientists to come together to develop theoretically informed and critical approaches to historical questions.
History is a field of inquiry critical to all human understanding. The New
School for Social Research seeks to bring historians together with social
scientists and philosophers to produce critical histories of the present.
It recognizes that historical inquiry has transformative potential for
interpretation and theory in the social sciences. Its mission is to rejuvenate
the empirically based social sciences with humanities-inspired, linguistically
informed, and pictorially sympathetic approaches. The committee aims
to provide The New School for Social Research with an archive and a
perspective on the world that works “from the outside in.”
The Committee on Historical Studies (CHS) was founded on the conviction
that the social sciences, public discussion of contemporary problems, and
policy-making all become richer and more effective when joined with
historical analysis; that practicing social scientists who want to work with
history should learn to use historians’ standard materials and methods; and
that the theories and methods of the social sciences strengthen historical
research. These sentiments continue to guide the pedagogical and research
programs of historical studies at The New School.
CHS was founded in the mid-1980s by Charles Tilly, Louise Tilly, Aristide
Zolberg, and Ira Katznelson. Its premise is that history is a field of inquiry
critical to all human understanding, and that The New School for Social
Research is a natural place for historians, philosophers, and social scientists
to come together to develop theoretically informed and critical approaches to
historical questions.