The title of this volume is an aporia. ‘Handbook’ implies that the volume guides the reader toward the established and the known. Yet the volume is not a panoramic view of the contemporary practice of historical sociology, nor does it offer a comprehensive view of the field. Moreover, historical sociology occupies an ambiguous space between history and sociology. While it would be impossible to sum it up in a few sentences, one of its defining characteristics is a concern with the formation and transformation of modernity. In this respect the orientation of historical sociology concerns the present, viewed as both shaped by and shaping the past.