Microhistory

An edition of the 1560 account of the trial of the French imposter Martin Guerre who would serve as the subject for Natalie Zemon Davis's landmark The Return of Martin Guerre (1982)

Microhistory is a genre of history that focuses on small units of research, such as an event, community, individual or a settlement. In its ambition, however, microhistory can be distinguished from a simple case study insofar as microhistory aspires to "[ask] large questions in small places", according to the definition given by Charles Joyner.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It is closely associated with social and cultural history.

OriginsEdit

Microhistory became popular in Italy in the 1970s.Template:Sfn According to Giovanni Levi, one of the pioneers of the approach, it began as a reaction to a perceived crisis in existing historiographical approaches.Template:Sfn Carlo Ginzburg, another of microhistory's founders, has written that he first heard the term used around 1977, and soon afterwards began to work with Levi and Simona Cerutti on Microstorie, a series of microhistorical works.Template:Sfn

The word "microhistory" dates back to 1959, when the American historian George R. Stewart published Pickett's Charge: A Microhistory of the Final Attack on Gettysburg, July 3, 1863, which tells the story of the final day of the Battle of Gettysburg.Template:Sfn Another early use was by the Annales historian Fernand Braudel, for whom the concept had negative connotations, being overly concerned with the history of events.Template:Sfn A third early use of the term was in the title of Luis González's 1968 work {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.Template:Sfn González distinguished between microhistory, for him synonymous with local history, and "{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}", which is primarily concerned with anecdotes.Template:Sfn

ApproachEdit

The most distinctive aspect of the microhistorical approach is the small scale of investigations.Template:Sfn Microhistorians focus on small units in society, as a reaction to the generalisations made by the social sciences which do not necessarily hold up when tested against these smaller units.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> For instance, Ginzburg's 1976 work The Cheese and the Worms – "probably the most popular and widely read work of microhistory"Template:Sfn – investigates the life of a single sixteenth-century Italian miller, Menocchio. The individuals microhistorical works are concerned with are frequently those whom Richard M. Tristano describes as "little people", especially those considered heretics.Template:Sfn

Carlo Ginzburg has written that a core principle of microhistory is making obstacles in sources, such as lacunae, part of the historical account.Template:Sfn Relatedly, Levi has said that the point of view of the researcher becomes part of the account in microhistory.Template:Sfn Other notable aspects of microhistory as a historical approach are an interest in the interaction of elite and popular culture,Template:Sfn and an interest in the interaction between micro- and macro-levels of history.Template:Sfn

Since the 2010s, historical research has expanded to include the field of “global microhistory,”<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> which seeks to combine the detailed focus of microhistorical studies with broader transregional or global perspectives.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

CitationsEdit

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General and cited referencesEdit

External linksEdit

Microhistory—The website of the Center for Microhistorical Research at the Reykjavik Academy in Iceland
"What Is Microhistory?", Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon, chair of the Center for Microhistorical Research
Microhistory Network—A group of historians interested in microhistory (2007–)

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Microhistory

Contents

OriginsEdit

ApproachEdit

See alsoEdit

Notable microhistoriansEdit

CitationsEdit

General and cited referencesEdit

External linksEdit