54 SOCIAL SCIENTIST the majority of Indian historians from the Annales tradition. The second is the stimulating nature of Aymard and Mukhia's pieces; they raise issues and make assertions that are difficult to ignore. The importance of their essays is the justification of mine. The founding of the journal Annales in 1929 by Marc Bloch and Lucien Febvre marked the beginning of new history in France as the journal became the spearpoint of the movement against the Rankean narrative history of the French academic establishment. Aymard and Mukhia begin their account with this act4 but they do not situate it in the wider historiographical context; instead they deny any such context. According to them, the basis of new history—'with its aim to revitalise history, its methods, content, problems and ambitions'—was laid down only *in France and not elsewhere*. This new history went through 'successive stages of evolution* and then made its impact abroad 'determining the orientation of historical studies'. (Vol. I, pp. 1,2, emphasis added). From a branch of humanities, history became a branch of the social sciences in the USA under its influence, as is seen in the( works of the Tillys, Natalie Z. Davies, etc. The works of E.P. Thompson and of E.J. Hobsbawm and the founding of the Past and . Present and the History Workshop Journal show how new history, originating in France, became truly international.5 (Vol. II, pp. 6-7). All this comes directly into conflict with what we know about historiographical developments outside France. While one must acknowledge the influence the Annales historians have exerted on American history writing since the late sixties, especially after the exchange visitor programme set up in 1968 by the History Department of the Princeton University, one must also maintain that the reaction against Rankean history did not occur only in France, but elsewhere too without any French influence. Reaction against political history set in the USA as early as the 1890s led by Frederick Jackson Turner and James Harvey Robinson, and reinforced by Charles Beard. By the 1920s social history had won a secure place for itself there,6 and it is significant that, in a critical discussion, E.J. Hobsbawm should find the Comparative Studies in History and Society the first academic journal specialising in social history,7 which was started in 1958 by the US historians. The reaction occurred also in the form of the coming of intellectual history as a field of research, thanks largely to the work of Perry Miller.8 In economic history we have Frederick C. Lane, Thomas C. Cochran and John U Nef among the pioneer US historians.9 It would be difficult to rival the brilliance of agrarian histories written by the Annales scholars, but it is a fact that the first specialist journal Agricultural History Review was set up by the Agricultural History Society in the USA in 1927.10 Even after the sixties, the Annales history did not 'go as far as determining the orientation' of the US historiography; it is sufficient to mention Gutman's and Genovese* works on slavery, and psychohistory.11