Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Foreword vii
4. Acknowledgments xi
5. Introduction: Conjectural History, the Form and Its Afterlife 1
6. 1. Conjectural History: The Enlightenment Form 27
7. 2. Political Economy and the Question of Progress 59
8. 3. Comte, Spencer, and the Science of Society 89
9. 4. The Origins of Culture and of Anthropology 121
10. 5. Darwin, Nietzsche, and the Prehistory of the Human 163
11. 6. The Social Psychology of Religion 198
12. 7. Novels as Conjectural Histories 225
13. Conclusion: Conjecturalism Now 250
14. Appendix 1. Enlightenment Conjectural Histories 273
15. Appendix 2. Hegel, History, and Conjecture 275
16. Appendix 3. Were Conjectural Histories Racist? 281
17. Notes 287
18. Index 361