Comparative history is the comparison of different societies which existed during the same time period or shared similar cultural conditions. The comparative history of societies emerged as an important specialty among intellectuals in the Enlightenment in the 18th century, as typified by Montesquieu, Voltaire, Adam Smith, and others. Sociologists and economists in the 19th century often explored comparative history, as exemplified by Alexis de Tocqueville, Karl Marx, and Max Weber. In the first half of the 20th century, a large reading public followed the comparative histories of Oswald Spengler, Pitirim Sorokin, and Arnold J. Toynbee. Since the 1950s, however, comparative history has faded from the public view, and is now the domain of specialized scholars working independently. Recent exemplars of this approach include American sociologist Barrington Moore, historians Herbert E. Bolton and Carroll Quigley; British historians Arnold Toynbee and Geoffrey Barraclough; and German historian Oswald Spengler. Several sociologists are prominent in this field, including Max Weber, S. N. Eisenstadt, Seymour Martin Lipset, Charles Tilly, and Michael Mann. Historians generally accept the comparison of particular institutions in different societies, but since the hostile reaction to Toynbee in the 1950s, generally do not pay much attention to sweeping comparative studies that cover wide swaths of the world over many centuries. Wikipedia [ - ]

Comparative history is the comparison of different societies which existed during the same time... [ + ]