Editing Prosopography (section)

==Overview==
Prosopographical research has the goal of learning about patterns of relationships and activities through the study of collective biography; it collects and analyses statistically relevant quantities of biographical data about a well-defined group of individuals. The technique is used for studying many pre-modern societies.

The nature of prosopographical research has evolved. In his 1971 essay, Lawrence Stone discussed an "older" form of prosopography which was principally concerned with well-known social elites, many of whom were already historical figures. Their genealogies were well researched and social webs and kinship linking could be traced, allowing a prosopography of a "power elite" to emerge. Prominent examples which Stone drew upon were the work of [[Charles A. Beard]] and Sir [[Lewis Namier]].<ref>Stone 1971, pp. 47–52.</ref>

Beard's ''[[An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States]]'' (1913) offered an explanation of the form and content of the [[U.S. Constitution]] by looking at the class background and economic interests of the [[Founding Fathers of the United States|Founding Fathers]]. Namier produced an equally influential study of the 18th-century [[House of Commons of Great Britain]], ''[[The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III]]'', and inspired a circle of historians whom Stone light-heartedly termed "Namier Inc".<ref>Stone 1971, p. 51.</ref> Stone contrasted this older prosopography with what in 1971 was the newer form of quantitative prosopography, which was concerned with much wider populations, particularly "ordinary people".<ref>Stone 1971, pp. 58–59.</ref> An early example of this kind of work is [[Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie]]'s pioneering [[microhistory]] ''[[Montaillou (book)|Montaillou]]'' (1975), which developed a picture of patterns of kinship and heresy as well as daily and seasonal routine in a small [[Occitania|Occitan]] village, the last pocket of [[Cathars]], from 1294 to 1324.

Stone anticipated that this new form of prosopography would become dominant as part of a growing wave of social science history.<ref>Stone 1971, pp. 69–73.</ref> Prosopography and other associated forms of [[social science]] and quantitative history went into a period of decline during the 1980s. In the 1990s, perhaps because of developments in computing and particularly in database software, prosopography was revived. The "new prosopography" has since become clearly established as an important approach in historical research.{{cn|date=June 2024}}