Microhistory and the Histories of Everyday Life

Bibliographic Data

ID5779753
AuthorsJohn Brewer (0000-0001-6587-2908, California Institute of Technology), John D Brewer (0000-0002-4213-5830, California Institute of Technology, corresponding author)
Year2010
Volume7
Issue1
Pages87-109
Publication date2010-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCultural and Social History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1478-0038 • E-ISSN: 1478-0046
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.2752/147800410x477359
OpenAlexW2093459553
LanguageEN
Citations received67
References cited37

This article examines microhistories and the histories of the everyday both in the context of developments in social and cultural history since the 1960s, and in the light of political and social change in post-war European society. Moving beyond debates about historical narrative, it emphasizes issues of perspective, space, size and historical distance in shaping historical interpretation. This historiographical trend, it argues, emanates from two major debates within the social sciences and politics. One concerns the nature of everyday life under modern capitalism and 'consumer society', the other the vexed issue of human agency. Focusing particularly on Italian microstoria, it argues that such writing is best understood as the commitment to a humanist agenda which places agency and historical meaning in the realm of day-to-day transactions, and which sees their recuperation as the proper task of the historian.Keywords: microhistoryeveryday lifehistoriographymodernizationhumanismneo-realism

Everyday life · Microhistory · Australian History and Society · Cultural History and Identity Formation · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies