Microhistory

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The Experts below are selected from a list of 2112 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform

Matt Makowka - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

Francesca Carnevali - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • social capital and trade associations in america c 1860 1914 a Microhistory approach
    The Economic History Review, 2011
    Co-Authors: Francesca Carnevali
    Abstract:

    This Microhistory explores the activities of one of the many trade associations created in the nineteenth century in the US. Qualitative evidence is used to engage with the concepts of competition, cooperation, and social capital. This article explores the reasons why cooperation emerged between competing economic agents, as an intended outcome of associational activity. It is argued that trade associations are forms of voluntary association consciously established to achieve economic aims and create networks of sociability. These, in turn, generated social capital used by economic agents to avoid ruinous competition and to capture political, economic, and social resources.

  • Social capital and trade associations in America, c. 1860–1914: a Microhistory approach†
    The Economic History Review, 2011
    Co-Authors: Francesca Carnevali
    Abstract:

    This Microhistory explores the activities of one of the many trade associations created in the nineteenth century in the US. Qualitative evidence is used to engage with the concepts of competition, cooperation, and social capital. This article explores the reasons why cooperation emerged between competing economic agents, as an intended outcome of associational activity. It is argued that trade associations are forms of voluntary association consciously established to achieve economic aims and create networks of sociability. These, in turn, generated social capital used by economic agents to avoid ruinous competition and to capture political, economic, and social resources.

Paula Findlen - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • Focus: The generalist vision in the history of science : The two cultures of scholarship?
    Isis, 2005
    Co-Authors: Paula Findlen
    Abstract:

    This essay examines different approaches to writing the history of science in light of the increased importance of microhistorical studies in the past two decades. It specifically examines the role of Microhistory within the history of science and the importance of Thomas Kuhn's concept of the "normal exception" in early methodological statements about the function of Microhistory. It also considers the possibilities for writing archivally based history of science for a general readership as a means of bridging the divide between specialized research within the subfields of the history of science and more general accounts of the nature and growth of science.

  • The two cultures of scholarship
    Isis; an international review devoted to the history of science and its cultural influences, 2005
    Co-Authors: Paula Findlen
    Abstract:

    Abstract This essay examines different approaches to writing the history of science in light of the increased importance of microhistorical studies in the past two decades. It specifically examines the role of Microhistory within the history of science and the importance of Thomas Kuhn’s concept of the “normal exception” in early methodological statements about the function of Microhistory. It also considers the possibilities for writing archivally based history of science for a general readership as a means of bridging the divide between specialized research within the subfields of the history of science and more general accounts of the nature and growth of science. Attempts to divide anything into two ought to be regarded with much suspicion. —C. P. Snow

Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • Views into the Fragments: An Approach from a Microhistorical Perspective
    International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 2016
    Co-Authors: Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon
    Abstract:

    The approach I call the “singularization of history,” which I have been developing in recent years within the methodological structure of Microhistory, is the main subject of this article. It has the precise aim of defining the ways in which scholars can use sources to enter into the past in as detailed and varied a way as possible without becoming trapped within the received channels of the grand narratives. I will make an attempt to demonstrate what the Icelandic School of Microhistory (ISM) is all about and its connection to the scribal culture in the country, as well as the importance of ego-documents for microhistorical analysis. The central element in the analysis of this paper will be the sources themselves—their creation, their context within the events they describe, the opportunities they present for analysis, and in what kind of academic context they have become a subject for enquiry.

  • What is Microhistory?: Theory and Practice
    2013
    Co-Authors: Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon, István M. Szijártó
    Abstract:

    Part I (Istvan M. Szijarto) Introduction: Against simple truths. Chapter 1: Italian Microhistory. Chapter 2: Under the impact of microstoria: the French and German perspective. Chapter 3: Microhistory in a broader sense: the Anglo-Saxon landscape. Chapter 4: The periphery and the new millennium: answers and new questions. Part II (Sigurdur Gylfi Magnusson) Chapter 5: The doctor's tale: the living and the dead. Chapter 6: Refashioning of famous French peasants. Chapter 7: New and old theoretical issues: criticism of Microhistory. Chapter 8: A West Side story, and the one who gets to write it. Postscript: To step into the same stream twice. References. Extended Bibliography. Index.

  • The Singularization of History: Social History and Microhistory within the Postmodern State of Knowledge
    Journal of Social History, 2003
    Co-Authors: Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon
    Abstract:

    This article established its theoretical framework by criticizing the way in which social historians have practiced their scholarship in the last two decades and how and why they have not respondent to the challenges of "the cultural turn" and postmodernism. The main focus of this essay is on the rise in interest in Microhistory across the globe in the last decade and on the topics of recent microhistorical research. The essay pays particular attention to one element common to the theoretical orientations of all microhistorians, viz. the connections between micro and macro. Microhistorians of all persuasions emphasize the importance of placing small units of research within larger contexts. In this article, the author seeks to refute this principle and show its inherent contradictoriness. The article explores the implications of this move for the epistemological grounding of Microhistory. The author encourages historians to cut the umbilical cord that ties them to grand historical narratives, but he is aware that this is not an easy task, as the grand narratives inform the conventional codes of scientific research. As an alternative to accepting the guidance of grand narratives, the author advances an approach that he proposes to call the "singularization of history". Taking this approach involves scrutinizing the details and nuances of the events and objects of research and looking for meaning within them, rather than in larger contexts. The article severely critiques the conventional theoretical framework of microhistorical research and attempts to redefine the aims and parameters of Microhistory in order for it to achieve its full potential. The "singularization of history" shows the way.

István M. Szijártó - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • What is Microhistory?: Theory and Practice
    2013
    Co-Authors: Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon, István M. Szijártó
    Abstract:

    Part I (Istvan M. Szijarto) Introduction: Against simple truths. Chapter 1: Italian Microhistory. Chapter 2: Under the impact of microstoria: the French and German perspective. Chapter 3: Microhistory in a broader sense: the Anglo-Saxon landscape. Chapter 4: The periphery and the new millennium: answers and new questions. Part II (Sigurdur Gylfi Magnusson) Chapter 5: The doctor's tale: the living and the dead. Chapter 6: Refashioning of famous French peasants. Chapter 7: New and old theoretical issues: criticism of Microhistory. Chapter 8: A West Side story, and the one who gets to write it. Postscript: To step into the same stream twice. References. Extended Bibliography. Index.

  • Four Arguments for Microhistory
    Rethinking History, 2002
    Co-Authors: István M. Szijártó
    Abstract:

    This article argues that Microhistory (the intensive historical investigation of a relatively small subject) has four distinct advantages over traditional macro-oriented social history: it is appealing to the general public, it is much closer to reality, it conveys personal experience directly and, with all the lines branching out from the event, person or community in the focus of the investigation, it points towards the general. Since too heavy reliance on either of these four characteristics can produce specific distortions of the microhistorical work, historians should attempt to reach a balance.

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