During the relatively brief period in which sociology has been recognised as a legitimate form of intellectual endeavour, various attempts have been made to establish strict distinctions between sociology and the study of history in terms of both their logic and their method. None of these attempts has been demonstrably successful but certain of them have none the less been influential and must, I think, be taken into account in any discussion of the relationship between history and sociology, whether this is in terms of theory or of practice.