This past fall I
was introduced to a genre of history that I had not come into contact before or
if I had I did not realizes it.
Micro-history! Micro-history is usually an account of a person, a small
group of people or a small event from the past.
The key word is small, it’s like looking at history through a
microscope, examining how one community lived amidst of a larger event. For an example looking at how a slave in
Lynchburg survived the civil war. I was
given to read two micro-histories during my first semester at grad-school, The Worms and the Cheese by Carlo
Ginzburg, a story of a 16th century heretic who was burned at the
stack for heresy against the orthodox teachings of the Catholic Church. The other book was A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard Based on Her Diary
1785-1812 (a better book than the title might imply) by Laurel Thatcher
Ulrich, an account of a New England community based on a Midwife’s diary.
I found that I
enjoyed this genre of history a great deal, it reminded me of why I love
history so much. It’s all in the
story. What micro-history does very
well, is that it takes a large concept like the Reformation, American Civil War
or World War Two and looks at a small piece of it. Showing that these larger concepts are not as
monolithic as a survey class may imply. Micro-history also brings history down
to an eye level, it makes history more human. Reminding readers that history is little more
than the memories of people. It looks at
ordinary people who lived through extraordinary times and tries to examine
their thoughts.
Micro-history
offers an alternate perspective that history often glazes over. It allows a peek at people like Mennochio from
The Cheese and the Worms who would
not otherwise get a spot in a history book and yet were significant to a larger
story. A historian may use a piece of evidence
such as court transcripts as a source to make a larger point and miss the
cultural, social, and political significance of the particular event. I decided after reading The Cheese and the Worms that I would use it if I ever taught a
Reformation or Church history. It is
easy skim over everyday people during The Reformation. Typically when a student is introduced to The
Reformation they are shown Luther, Calvin, Protestant Martyrs, and the
Religious wars. People who are larger
than life and events that were huge in scope.
“Microhistory acknowledges different perspectives in the larger
narrative.” [1]
As interesting a discipline
as micro-history is there are some drawbacks to the historian, “such as lack of
debate from other historians, making a smaller point and then projecting it on
a larger issue.” [1] A problem with microhistory is that typically there is not
a lot of scholars that study the same single life or small event, so it is
harder to find challenges and debates about the micro-historian’s points. “Debating and questioning one’s understanding
of the facts is essential to maintain a high level of historical excellence.” Another problem with micro-history is that often
it lacks the context that larger scoped histories have. It also may be tempting for someone who reads
a micro-history like A Midwife’s Tale
and then assume that every village in colonial America is exactly the same. “One
needs an understanding of the culture around the narrative to understand the
significance of the situation.”[1]
Despite these
drawbacks to micro-histories, I greatly enjoy them and believe they are very
helpful to the larger picture as well as the small. In every history class the question always
plagues history teachers, “what should I keep and would should I leave out?”
Micro-history allows historians to look a little bit closer and keep a little
more of the story.
[1] Keating, Christopher.
"Reaction Paper Week 10." JMU
Class Hist 671 (November 2015): 1-2.
Bibliography
for works mentioned:
Ginzburg, Carlo. The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a
Sixteenth-Century Miller. Trans. John and Anne Tedeschi. Middlesex,
England: Penguin Books, 1985.
Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher. A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha
Ballard, Based on Her Diary 1785-1812. New York: Vintage Books, 1990.
