An historian answers his sociological critics

Samenvatting

Responds to a review symposium on Kennedy's Nieuw Babylon in aanbouw: Nederland in de jaren zestig ([Building New Babylon: The Netherlands in the Sixties] 1995) & "New Babylon and the Politics of Modernity" (1997). Although the commentators criticisms role in the cultural metamorphosis of the Netherlands are found valid, it is argued that Dutch sociologists tend to resist the idea that modernization & modernity are discursive fictions rather than objective results of social forces in history. It is further stressed that Nieuw Babylon is not a sociological but a culture-historical, work to which sociological standards can not & should not be extensively applied. Moreover, criticism regarding the sometimes slightly irrelevant comparison between processes in the Netherlands & in the US are attributed to Kennedy's US background & accompanying knowledge resources. Adapted from the source document.