History

The era of social sciences can be the most resonating era for me because until now, most of the events and activities during this historical period still resonate today. For instance, no one can deny that the works of Carl Marx has a profound influence in our understanding of the present economic system. Today we appreciate the economic measures if it is truly concern on the addressing the concerns of the poor. But we also denounce the authorities when they favor businessmen or the capitalists by on the issue of taxation. Apparently, these are influences that were drawn from Marxian theories of class struggle and social change. Weber on the other hand, Max Webers work, like Marxs provided understanding about the nature of the economic system called capitalism. Today, Webers work provided the basis for thrift banking and other institutions that promote savings, hard work, and individual accomplishment. Emily Durkheim provided great understanding of the existing events, activities, and system of governance or the conduct of society that with out their works, their generation as well as the present generation may never understood correctly. Their ideas provided great contribution to historians that through the works of such great men, had acquired skills to render evidence in forms that made it susceptible to quantitative analysis.

The works of Carl Marx regarding the relationship between economic structure, social change, and political order still resonates today through the field of sociology which provided historians with powerful tools for analyzing the relationship of the economy to human experience at the most complex level.  Given all the above, I could identify most this era because it was an era where most of the subjects that we use today such as human relations, political economy, and the social structures were introduced and that through their ideas, sociologist were able to define them for the benefit of the succeeding generations.

Methodological Strength and Weaknesses of this era
The era of social science definitely has its strength. The most evident was the emergence of great thinkers like Marx, Weber, and Durkheim whose keen views and observation of the existing economic system, governance, and the social events provided historians the basis for interpretation of historical evidences and facts. Their works became the materials with which historians build meanings. The methodological strength of this era therefore lies in the ideas and scholarly works that were liberally flourishing during this period. While each of the historical eras has their own respective strength, the era of social science provided the greatest contribution in our understanding of the current subjects such as the economy, social events, and the existing structure of society.

The weaknesses of this era
The era of social sciences had provided enormous good things for historians as well as to the twentieth century generations because it opens understanding towards the past and towards the current systems and social events. However, along with this methodological strength are its weaknesses. One of the most obvious was their strong views on social and the social structures of their times, Marx for instance steered intellectual debate particularly on his theories of class and social change.

Weber suffered criticism in so far as his emphasis on valued savings, hard work, and individual accomplishment is concern despite obviously his intension was to express his disapproval of capitalism. While Durkheim seems to have provided a more generally fair views, collectively however, this era depicted potential weaknesses that has drawn criticism and debate among the intellectuals and historians.