Microhistory

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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. According to Charles Joyner microhistory differs from case studies in that microhistory aspires to "[ask] large questions in small places".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It is closely associated with social and cultural history.

Origins

Microhistory became popular in Italy in the 1970s.Template:Sfn According to Giovanni Levi, one of the pioneers of the approach, it began as a reaction to a perceived crisis in existing historiographical approaches.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

The microhistorical movement gained momentum during the 1970s, a period in which macro-historical processes and social science–oriented historiography were increasingly being questioned. Emerging as a reaction against grand narratives and broad explanatory models such as Marxism, microhistory sought to shift the focus of history from dominant power centers to the margins, highlighting the experiences of “ordinary people” who had been neglected both in traditional political history and in social-scientific approaches. The Italian tradition of microstoria, shaped by figures such as Carlo Ginzburg, Giovanni Levi, Carlo Poni, and Edoardo Grendi, became institutionally consolidated through the journal Quaderni Storici, founded in 1966.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn A third early use of the term was in the title of Luis González's 1968 work Template:Lang.Template:Sfn González distinguished between microhistory, for him synonymous with local history, and "Template:Lang", which is primarily concerned with anecdotes.Template:Sfn

Approach

The most distinctive aspect of the microhistorical approach is the small scale of investigations.Template:Sfn 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>Template:Cite journal</ref> For instance, Ginzburg's 1976 work The Cheese and the Worms – "probably the most popular and widely read work of microhistory"Template:Sfn – 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.Template:Sfn

While microhistory reduces the scale of investigation, it simultaneously transforms the methodology of historical inquiry. Rather than rejecting macro-historical processes entirely, it treats them as complementary, using local studies to test broader generalizations. By placing the individual and everyday experience at the center of inquiry, microhistory seeks to restore “the human face of history.” Influenced by Clifford Geertz’s concept of “thick description,” microhistorians draw upon cultural anthropology to reveal the symbolic meanings embedded within historical phenomena.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Carlo Ginzburg has written that a core principle of microhistory is making obstacles in sources, such as lacunae, part of the historical account.Template:Sfn Relatedly, Levi has said that the point of view of the researcher becomes part of the account in microhistory.Template:Sfn Other notable aspects of microhistory as a historical approach are an interest in the interaction of elite and popular culture,Template:Sfn and an interest in the interaction between micro- and macro-levels of history.Template:Sfn

Microhistory also places strong emphasis on narrative, viewing the historian’s process of research and perspective as integral to the narrative itself. In doing so, microhistorians distinguish themselves from radical postmodern approaches by maintaining a commitment to factual historical reality.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Since the 2010s, historical research has expanded to include the field of "global microhistory,"<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> which seeks to combine the detailed focus of microhistorical studies with broader transregional or global perspectives.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

See also

Notable microhistorians

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Citations

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General and cited references

  • Microhistory—The website of the Center for Microhistorical Research at the Reykjavik Academy in Iceland
  • "What Is Microhistory?", Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon, chair of the Center for Microhistorical Research
  • Microhistory Network—A group of historians interested in microhistory (2007–)

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