Manicas argues that Skocpol does not explain why the revolutions in her book happened, but she offers a structural analysis for the understanding of these revolutions. According to Manicas, “history and the social sciences have distinct interests and tasks.” Social scientists attempt to better our understanding of societies in the past, present and future. Historians, in contrast, explain pivotal points in history. The distinction between history and social science is, according to Manicas, “not in terms of time, but in terms of task.”