Microhistory

Microhistory is the intensive historical investigation of a well defined smaller unit of research (most often a single event, the community of a village, a family or a person). In its ambition, however, microhistory can be distinguished from a simple case study insofar microhistory aspires to "search for answers to large questions in small places", to use the definition given by Charles Joyner.

The original idea of writing microhistory came from Italy in the 1970s. Microstoria had a social history (Giovanni Levi: L’eredita immateriale. Carriere di un esorcista nel Piemonte del seicento. Einaudi: Torino, 1985.) and a cultural history (Carlo Ginzburg: Il formaggio e i vermi. Einaudi: Torino, 1976.) wing. However, E. P. Thompson's Whigs and Hunters: The Origins of the Black Act (1975) and Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie's Montaillou (1975), pioneering British and French microhistories, each preceded Ginzburg's book.

Microhistory had a significant impact on French and German historians in the 1980s and 1990, when it produced classics in several languages (e.g., Natalie Zemon Davis: The Return of Martin Guerre. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Mass., 1983.). It can be seen as part of cultural history together with the histoire des mentalités of the French Annales School, the German Alltagsgeschichte, or historical anthropology. It is especially close to the latter, with the important difference that it, especially its original Italian version, puts a great stress on the agency of historical actors and is therefore unwilling to see culture as a determining force.

List of microhistorians

• Wolfgang Behringer
• Simona Cerutti
• Alain Corbin
• Robert Darnton
• Natalie Zemon Davis
• Theo van Deursen
• Clifford Geertz
• Carlo Ginzburg
• Luis Gonzalez y Gonzalez
• Craig Harline
• Cynthia A. Kierner
• Mark Kurlansky
• Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie
• Giovanni Levi
• Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon
• Luis Mott
• Detlev Peukert
• Osvaldo Raggio
• Jacques Revel
• Guido Ruggiero
• David Sabean
• Mimi Sheller
• Jonathan D. Spence
• Alan Taylor
• Stella Tillyard
• E. P. Thompson
• Alfred F. Young
• Carolyn Steedman
• Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

See also

• Alltagsgeschichte
• History from below
• Scottish Rural Life, History Dictionary
• Category:Microhistorians

External links

• Microhistory - The website of the Center for Microhistorical Research at the Reykjavik Academy in Iceland.
• Interesting article on microhistory by the chair of the Center for Microhistorical Research at the Reykjavik Academy
• Microhistory Network A group of historians interested in microhistory (2007-)
• Bibliography of microhistorical works: http://www.microhistory.org/bibliography.php
• Journal of Microhistory: http://www.microhistory.org/journal2009.php