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microhistory

{{Short description|Intensive historical investigation of a well-defined smaller unit of research}}

File:Thumbnail (5).jpg 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.{{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 }} It is closely associated with 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 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'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.{{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}}

For instance, Ginzburg's 1976 work The Cheese and the Worms – "probably the most popular and widely read work of microhistory"{{sfn|Tristano|1996|p=26}} – 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 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}}

Since the 2010s, historical research has expanded to include the field of “global microhistory,”{{Cite journal |last=Ghobrial |first=John-Paul |date=2019 |title=Global History and Microhistory |url=https://academic.oup.com/past/issue/242/Supplement_14 |journal=Past & Present |issue=Supplement 14 |via=}} which seeks to combine the detailed focus of microhistorical studies with broader transregional or global perspectives.{{Cite journal |last=Bertrand |first=Romain |last2=Calafat |first2=Guillaume |date=2018 |title=Global Microhistory: A Case to Follow |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/annales-histoire-sciences-sociales-english-edition/article/abs/global-microhistory-a-case-to-follow/0BE435ECBC8A6B5D7796E377D628B022 |journal=Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales - English Edition |language=en |volume=73 |issue=1 |pages=3–17 |doi=10.1017/ahsse.2020.9 |issn=}}

See also

= Notable microhistorians =

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Citations

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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