History of mentalities

The term history of mentalities is a calque on the French histoire des mentalités (which might also be translated as 'history of attitudes', 'history of world-views'), a term referring to the manner of doing history (see historiography) associated with the Annales School.

The history of mentalities focuses not on the wars and politics which have been the subject matter of most European history-writing since ancient times, but on the wider mindsets of past cultural and social groups. The term might also be seen as an equivalent to, or a hyponym of, cultural history.

References

• Peter Burke, 'Strengths and Weaknesses in the History of Mentalities'. in Varieties of Cultural History (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1997), pp. 162–82; revised from original publication in History of European Ideas, 7 (1986), 439-51.

• Philippe Poirrier, Les enjeux de l'histoire culturelle (Paris, Seuil, 2004).