View source for Microhistory

{{Short description|Intensive historical investigation of a well-defined smaller unit of research}}
[[File:Thumbnail (5).jpg|upright|thumb|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>{{cite book |last=Joyner |first=Charles W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XH0gSiHYhrQC&q=answers+to+large+questions&pg=PA1 |title=Shared Traditions: Southern History and Folk Culture |date=1999 |publisher=[[University of Illinois]] |location=Urbana |page=1|isbn=9780252067723 }}</ref> It is closely associated with [[social history|social]] and [[cultural history]].

== Origins ==
Microhistory became popular in Italy in the 1970s.{{sfn|Tristano|1996|p=26}} According to [[Giovanni Levi]], one of the pioneers of the approach, it began as a reaction to a perceived crisis in existing historiographical approaches.{{sfn|Burke|1991|page=93-94}} [[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.{{sfn|Ginzburg|Tedeschi|Tedeschi|1993|p=10}}

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]].{{sfn|Ginzburg|Tedeschi|Tedeschi|1993|p=11}} Another early use was by the [[Annales School|Annales]] historian [[Fernand Braudel]], for whom the concept had negative connotations, being overly concerned with the history of events.{{sfn|Ginzburg|Tedeschi|Tedeschi|1993|p=12}} A third early use of the term was in the title of [[Luis González y González|Luis González]]'s 1968 work {{lang|es|Pueblo en vilo: Microhistoria de San José de Gracia}}.{{sfn|Ginzburg|Tedeschi|Tedeschi|1993|p=12}} González distinguished between microhistory, for him synonymous with local history, and "{{lang|fr|petite histoire}}", which is primarily concerned with anecdotes.{{sfn|Ginzburg|Tedeschi|Tedeschi|1993|p=12}}

== Approach ==
The most distinctive aspect of the microhistorical approach is the small scale of investigations.{{sfn|Tristano|1996|p=26}} 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>{{cite journal |last=Magnússon |first=Sigurdur Gylfi |title='The Singularization of History': Social History and Microhistory within the Postmodern State of Knowledge |journal=[[Journal of Social History]] |volume=36 |issue=3 |year=2003 |page=709 |doi=10.1353/jsh.2003.0054 |s2cid=144942672}}</ref>
For instance, Ginzburg's 1976 work ''[[The Cheese and the Worms]]'' &ndash; "probably the most popular and widely read work of microhistory"{{sfn|Tristano|1996|p=26}} &ndash; 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.{{sfn|Tristano|1996|p=26-27}}

Carlo Ginzburg has written that a core principle of microhistory is making obstacles in sources, such as [[lacuna (manuscripts)|lacunae]], part of the historical account.{{sfn|Ginzburg|Tedeschi|Tedeschi|1993|p=28}} Relatedly, Levi has said that the point of view of the researcher becomes part of the account in microhistory.{{sfn|Burke|1991|page=106}} Other notable aspects of microhistory as a historical approach are an interest in the interaction of elite and popular culture,{{sfn|Tristano|1996|p=28}} and an interest in the interaction between micro- and macro-levels of history.{{sfn|Tristano|1996|p=27}}

== See also ==
* [[Alltagsgeschichte]]
* [[English local history]]
* [[People's history|History from below]]
* [[:Category:Microhistorians]]
* [[Macrohistory]]

=== Notable microhistorians ===
{{div col|colwidth=15em}}
* [[Wolfgang Behringer]]
* [[Robert Bickers]]
* {{Interlanguage link|Jaroslav Čechura|cs|3=Jaroslav Čechura}}
* [[Simona Cerutti]]
* [[Alain Corbin]]
* [[John J. Curry]]
* [[Robert Darnton]]
* [[Natalie Zemon Davis]]
* [[Arie van Deursen]]
* [[Clifford Geertz]]
* [[Carlo Ginzburg]]
* [[Luis González y González]]
* [[Maurizio Gribaudi]]
* [[Craig Harline]]
* [[Cynthia A. Kierner]]
* [[Mark Kurlansky]]
* [[Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie]]
* [[Giovanni Levi]]
* [[Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon]]
* [[Luis Mott]]
* [[Sue Peabody]]
* [[Leslie Peirce]]
* [[Detlev Peukert]]
* [[Osvaldo Raggio]]
* [[Jacques Revel]]
* [[Guido Ruggiero]]
* [[David Sabean]]
* [[Mimi Sheller]]
* [[Carolyn Steedman]]
* [[Jonathan D. Spence]]
* [[Alan Taylor (historian)|Alan Taylor]]
* [[Stella Tillyard]]
* [[E. P. Thompson]]
* [[Laurel Thatcher Ulrich]]
* [[Alfred F. Young]]
{{Div col end}}

== Citations ==
{{reflist}}

== General and cited references ==
* {{Cite book |editor-last=Levi |editor-first=Giovanni |chapter=On Microhistory |year=1991 |last=Burke |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Burke (historian) |title=New Perspectives on Historical Writing |location=Cambridge |publisher=[[Polity Press]] |pages=254 |isbn=9780271008271 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yD3xAAAAMAAJ |via=[[Google Books]]}}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Ginzburg |first1=Carlo |author-link=Carlo Ginzburg |first2=John |last2=Tedeschi |first3=Anne C. |last3=Tedeschi |year=1993 |title=Microhistory: Two or Three Things That I Know about It |journal=[[Critical Inquiry]] |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=10–35 |publisher=[[The University of Chicago Press]] |jstor=1343946 |doi=10.1086/448699 |s2cid=197852979}}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Künzel |first1=Geraldien von Frijtag Drabbe |last2=Galimi |first2=Valeria |title=Microcosms of the Holocaust: Exploring New Venues into Small-Scale Research of the Holocaust |journal=[[Journal of Genocide Research]] |date=2019 |volume=21 |issue=3 |pages=335–341 |doi=10.1080/14623528.2019.1631517 |doi-access=free}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Tristano |first=Richard M. |year=1996 |title=Microhistory and Holy Family Parish: Some Historical Considerations |journal=U.S. Catholic Historian |volume=14 |issue=3: Parishes and Peoples: Religious and Social Meanings, Part Two |pages=23–30 |publisher=[[Catholic University of America Press]] |jstor=25154561}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.microhistory.org/ Microhistory]—The website of the Center for Microhistorical Research at the Reykjavik Academy in Iceland
* [http://hnn.us/articles/23720.html "What Is Microhistory?"], Sigurdur Gylfi Magnusson, chair of the Center for Microhistorical Research
* [http://www.microhistory.eu Microhistory Network]—A group of historians interested in microhistory (2007–)

{{Theories of History}}
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[[Category:Fields of history]]