Introduction / Olivier Zunz -- ch. 1. Retrieving European lives / Charles Tilly -- ch. 2. Synthesis of social change: reflections on American social history / Olivier Zunz -- ch. 3. Between global process and local knowledge: an inquiry into early Latin American social history, 1500-1900 / William B. Taylor -- ch. 4. Doing social history from Pim's doorway / David William Cohen -- ch. 5. Approaches to modern Chinese social history / William T. Rowe.