Goldstone, Jack

Jack A. Goldstone's (1953–) work is exemplary of a long and distinguished mode of sociological theory pioneered by such as giants as Karl Marx, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Max Weber. Like the founders of modern sociology, Goldstone develops theories of macrosocial processes designed to explain outcomes of exceptional interest. He has been particularly concerned with understanding why and how revolutions occur in specific places and times, the factors that promote smaller-scale revolts and social transformations, and, most recently, the emergence of the Industrial Revolution in England. Goldstone's explanations invoke general theoretical concepts, but they are also firmly grounded in the histories and empirical details of actual cases. As a result, his work simultaneously speaks to social theorists committed to explaining worldly transformations and historians who care deeply about the specific events of individual cases.

The eldest son of German Jewish immigrants who spent World War II in China, Goldstone studied with Shmuel N. Eisenstadt, Theda Skocpol, and George Homans at Harvard University, and it was here that he cultivated an interest in macro-comparative sociology. He taught at Northwestern University before coming to the University of California at Davis, where he was a professor of sociology and the founding director of the Center for History, Society, and Culture. In 2003, Goldstone joined George Mason University as the Virginia E. and John T. Hazel, Jr. Professor of Public Policy and Eminent Scholar.

One major strand of Goldstone's work focuses on the causes and outcomes of revolutions in the early modern world. In Revolution and Rebellion in the Early Modern World, which received the 1993 Distinguished Scholarly Publication Award of the American Sociological Association, he shows how a common pattern was at work in the production of revolutions in both European and non-European societies. Whereas much social theory—both Marxist and liberal—identifies revolutions as critical turning points in longterm social change and the emergence of the modern world, Goldstone argues that the major revolutions in world history were brought about by cyclic demographic changes impinging on structural factors common to agrarian-bureaucratic regimes across Europe and Asia. In particular, population growth produced revolution by triggering a cycle of state financial crises, intra-elite and elite-state conflict, popular opposition, and transformative ideologies. This theory of revolution is notable not only for its parsimony but also for the fascinating vision it offers of gradual, long-term changes operating on several levels of analysis that combine together to produce sudden episodes of dramatic transformation.

Goldstone has been at the forefront of theoretical efforts to link the study of revolutions to other social phenomena. He has shown that social movements and popular protest may emerge from similar causes and that revolutions can be seen as instances where social mobilization receives societal support and where the state response to mobilization is weak or inconsistent. Likewise, he has examined how his basic theory of revolution can be used to explain smaller-scale forms of collective action such as prison riots. If the real test of a theory is its ability to be extended to diverse phenomena, including phenomena at different levels of analysis, then Goldstone's work on revolution fares remarkably well.

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