The Sociological Imagination by C. Wright Mills

There is one ‘use of history,' rather common in social science today, that is, in fact, more a ritual than a genuine use. I refer to the dull little padding known as ‘sketching in the historical background,' with which studies of contemporary society are often prefaced, and to the ad hoc procedure known as ‘giving an historical explanation. ' Such explanations, resting upon the past of a single society, are seldom adequate. There are three points which should be made about them:

First, I think we must accept the point that we must often study history in order to get rid of it. By this I mean that what are often taken as historical explanations would better be taken as part of the statement of that which is to be explained. Rather than ‘explain' something as ‘a persistence from the past,' we ought to ask, ‘why has it persisted? ' Usually we will find that the answer varies according to the phases through which whatever we are studying has gone; for each of these phases we may then attempt to find out what role it has played, and how and why it has passed on to the next phase.