War and Peace Epilogue, Part 2, Chapter 11 Summary

Now, to connect this back to history. If history is written with the idea that all men are totally free to act however they want, then this is just as ludicrous as a book about astronomy that doesn’t mention gravity or orbits, or any of the other laws of physics governing objects in space.
But if history starts to deal with how limited human action actually is, then we’re going to get a science of history – a science that looks for laws that govern human behavior (not causes, but laws).