Early Remnants of Global Historical Sociology: Methodological Innovations Among Classical Black Sociologists

ABSTRACT In this paper, I contend that classical Black sociologists—who received their doctorates in the late 19 th century–mid 20 th century—showed early signs of what is now termed as global historical sociology (GHS). Scholars such as W.E.B Du Bois, Franklin Frazier, Charles S Johnson, Allison Davis, and St Clair Drake formed a tradition of historical sociology—long before American sociology officially institutionalized comparative‐historical sociology—and their conceptual and methodological approaches had similarities to the currently burgeoning movement of GHS. Like advocates of GHS, such classical authors often tracked relations across geographical boundaries, highlighting transboundary entanglements rather than reproducing methodological nationalism. Likewise, such classical authors sought to follow these relations across time to establish variation, explain such variation, and develop causal claims about the social universe. This paper thus calls for a greater recognition of the contributions classical Black sociologists made to the subfield of comparative‐historical sociology, and sociology more broadly.