Making History is about the question-central to social theory-of how human agents draw
their powers from the social structures they are involved in. Drawing on classical Marxism,
analytical philosophy, and a wide range of historical writing, Alex Callinicos seeks to avoid
two unacceptable extremes-dissolving the subject into an impersonal flux, as
poststructuralists tend to-and treating social structures as the mere effects of individual
action (for example, rational-choice theory). Among those discussed are Althusser …

Derek Sayer sets out with three main aims in his study of the nature of the basic concepts of
historical materialism. He wishes to avoid yet another'pet version'of what Marx'really said', to
provide a critique of the traditional Marxism exemplified by the work of GA Cohen and to
outline an alternative, empirically-based account of historical materialism. The present
reviewer shares all three aims but remains unconvinced that Sayer succeeds in his
purposes. Sayer begins by rejecting the possibility of arriving at a definitive interpretation of …