The relationship between sociology and history in the classics of sociology

Although they have in common several objects of investigation, sociologists and historians look at reality in a different way. History deals with the uniqueness of events and is less interested in the regularity with which phenomena occur; sociology studies the historical development of societies and the social actions of men with regard to their typical features. If sociology was born to study social change, it is bound to have close links with history, the objective of which is to reconstruct social events within evolutionary processes. Hence the need to reconstruct social processes within a relationship in which time represents the foundation of the relationship between sociology and history and in which there is a narrative continuity between past, present and future in order to understand human action. This assay analyzes the relationship between history and sociology and the different connotations that emerge in the thought of three great authors: Marx, Simmel, and Weber. The purpose will be to outline their thought regarding the possible relationship between the two disciplines, the way in which—albeit starting from different epistemological positions—they decline logical structures and perspectives of analysis that take into account the close solidarity between history and sociology.