Two decades ago, historical practice in the United States and Europe was challenged by social historians with behaviorist approaches which diverged dramatically from the discipline's traditional preferences for textual evidence. Such accounts explained occurrences in terms of individual intention and a narrative presentation of results. This shift of emphasis in social history was toward routinely generated accounts of individual behavior treated quantitatively, explanations made in terms of functional or economically rational behavior, and presentations that incorporated the social-science formalization of hypothesis and test.

But such behaviorist trends by no means swept the field of social history, and today's historical practices go in yet another direction. Today what is widely called for involves actor-centered accounts that do not focus upon individuals to the exclusion of groups, markets, cultures, and other socially defined fields of action, and that consider power in human societies as well as the limitations upon that power.

Recognizing that historical practices as well as method and discourse are in flux, Theory, Method, and Practice in Social and Cultural History is the result of the second biennial conference of the Pittsburgh Center for Social History, in which a number of the best scholars in the field reflect on the current situation in historical writing and research.