People's history
Apeople's history,orhistory from below,[1]is a type ofhistorical narrativewhich attempts to account for historical events from the perspective ofcommon peoplerather than leaders. There is an emphasis ondisenfranchised,theoppressed,the poor, the nonconformists, and otherwise marginal groups. The authors typically have aMarxistmodel in mind, as in the approach of theHistory Workshopmovement in Britain in the 1960s.[2]
"History from below" and "people's history"[edit]
Georges Lefebvrefirst used the phrase"histoire vue d'en bas et non d'en haut"(history seen from below and not from above) in 1932 when praisingAlbert Mathiezfor seeking to tell the"histoire des masses et non de vedettes"(history of the masses and not of starlets).[3]It was also used in the title ofA. L. Morton's 1938 book,A People's History of England.[4]Yet it wasE. P. Thompson's essayHistory from BelowinThe Times Literary Supplement(1966) which brought the phrase to the forefront of historiography from the 1970s.[5]: 113 [6][7]Thompson did not use the phrase in his TLS piece. History From Below appeared as the title of the Thompson article, put there by an anonymous editor.[8]It was popularized among non-historians byHoward Zinn's1980 book,A People's History of the United States.[9]
Description[edit]
A people's history is the history as the story of mass movements and of the outsiders. Individuals not included in the past in other type of writing about history are part of history-from-below theory's primary focus, which includes thedisenfranchised,theoppressed,thepoor,the nonconformists, thesubalternand the otherwise forgotten people. This theory also usually focuses on events occurring in the fullness of time, or when an overwhelming wave of smaller events cause certain developments to occur. This approach to writing history is in direct opposition to methods which tend to emphasize single great figures in history, referred to as theGreat Man theory;it argues that the driving factor of history is the daily life of ordinary people, theirsocial statusandprofession.These are the factors that "push and pull" on opinions and allow for trends to develop, as opposed to great people introducing ideas or initiating events.
In his bookA People's History of the United States,Howard Zinnwrote: "The history of any country, presented as the history of a family, conceals fierce conflicts of interest (sometimes exploding, most often repressed) between conquerors and conquered, masters and slaves, capitalists and workers, dominators and dominated in race and sex. And in such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people, asAlbert Camussuggested, not to be on the side of the executioners. "[10]
Criticism[edit]
HistorianGuy Beinerwrote that "the Neo-Marxist flag-bearers of history from below have at times resorted to idealized and insufficiently sophisticated notions of 'the people', unduly ascribing to them innate progressive values. In practice, democratic history is by no means egalitarian".[11]
See also[edit]
- Social history
- Canada: A People's History(television documentary series)
- The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome
- Montaillou (book)
- George Rudé
- Chris Harman
- Marxist historiography
- New labor history
- Subaltern (postcolonialism)
References[edit]
- ^E. P. Thompson, "History from Below",Times Literary Supplement,7 April 1966, pp. 279–80.
- ^Wade Matthews (2013).The New Left, National Identity, and the Break-up of Britain.BRILL. pp. 20–21.ISBN9789004253070.
- ^When the State Trembled 1442660228 Reinhold Kramer, Tom Mitchell - 2010 "It was Lucien Febvre who first used the phrase 'history from below' when in 1932 he observed that Albert Mathiez, a founding member of the Annales tradition, had sought 'histoire des masses et non de vedettes; histoire vue d'en bas en non..."
- ^AL MortonCompendium of Communist Biographies, Graham Stevenson, Accessed Feb 2014
- ^Black, Jeremy; MacRaild, Donald M. (1 January 2016) [2007].Studying History.Macmillan Education UK.ISBN978-1-137-47860-3.
- ^Thompson, Edward P. (1966), "History from Below'",The Times Literary Supplement
- ^Black and MacRaild wrote that Thompson's 1966 essay, 'History from below', in theTimes Literary Supplement"was the real starting point, not only of the term, but of attempts to define it, to intellectualise about it, and to give it a coherent agenda...."
- ^Tom Mitchell, "History From Below," Times Literary Supplement, November 24, 2006, 15
- ^Howard Zinn(1980).A People's History of the United States.London and New York: Longman.
- ^chapter: Columbus, The Indians, and Human Progress
- ^Guy Beiner,Forgetful Remembrance: Social Forgetting and Vernacular Historiography of a Rebellion in Ulster (Oxford University Press, 2018),pp. 9.
Further reading[edit]
- A People's History of EnglandbyA. L. Morton(Victor Gollancz: London, 1938)
- Howard Zinn(1980).A People's History of the United States.London and New York: Longman.
- An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United StatesbyRoxanne Dunbar-Ortiz(Washington; Beacon Press, 2014)
- A People's History of the United States (in 8 volumes) byPage Smith(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976–1987)
- A People's History of the Supreme CourtbyPeter Irons(New York: Viking, 1999)
- A People's History of the WorldbyChris Harman(London: Bookmarks, 1999)
- A People's History of the Second World WarbyDonny Gluckstein(Pluto Press, 2012)
- A People's History of World War IIbyMarc Favreau(New press, 2011)
- The Hundred Years War: A People's HistorybyDavid green(Yale University Press, 2014)
- A People's History of the American Revolution: How Common People Shaped the Fight for IndependencebyRay Raphael(New York: New Press, 2001)
- The Congo: From Leopold to Kabila: A People's HistorybyGeorges Nzongola-Ntalaja(London, NY: Zed, 2002)
- A People's History of the Vietnam WarbyJonathan Neale(New York: New Press, 2003)
- The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient RomebyMichael Parenti(New York: New Press, 2003)
- A History of the Swedish People, Vol. 1: From Prehistory to the RenaissancebyVilhelm Moberg(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005)
- A History of the Swedish People, Vol. 2: From Renaissance to RevolutionbyVilhelm Moberg(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005)
- A People's History of Science: Miners, Midwives, and "Low Mechaniks"byClifford D. Conner(New York: Nation, 2005)
- A People's History of the Civil War: Struggles for the Meaning of FreedombyDavid Williams(New York: New Press, 2005)
- A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891–1924byOrlando Figes(Penguin Books, 1998)
- A People's History of the Mexican RevolutionbyAdolfo Gilly(New York, NY: New Press, 2005)
- A People's History of the French RevolutionbyEric Hazan(Verso, 2014)
- A People's History of Christianity: The Other Side of the StorybyDianna Butler Bass(Harper One, 2010)
- Christian Origins: A People's History of Christianity, Vol. 1byRichard A. Horsley(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2005)
- Late Ancient Christianity: A People's History of Christianity, Vol. 2byVirginia Burrus(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2005)
- The English Civil War: A People's HistorybyDiane Purkiss(New York: Basic Books, 2006)
- Reformation Christianity: A People's History of ChristianitybyPeter MathesonandDenis R. Janz(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007)
- The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third WorldbyVijay Prashad(New York: New Press: W.W. Norton, 2007)
- A History of the Arab PeoplesbyAlbert Hourani(Warner Books, 1992)
- Hearts and Minds: A People's History of CounterinsurgencybyHannah Gurman(New Press, 2013)
- A People's History of the U.S. MilitarybyMichael A. Bellesiles(New Press, 2013)
- A People's History of Poverty in AmericabyStephen Pimpare(New York: New Press; London: Turnaround, 2008)
- A People's History of Environmentalism in the United StatesbyChad Montrie(Bloomsbury Academic, 2011)
- For All the People: Uncovering the Hidden History of Cooperation, Cooperative Movements, and Communalism in AmericabyJohn Curl(PM Press, 2012)
- Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and PracticebyJessica Gordon Nembhard(Penn State university press, 2014)
- A People's History of Sports in the United StatesbyDave Zirin(New York; London: New Press, c. 2008)
- A People's Art History of the United StatesbyNicolas Lampert(New press, 2010)
- Downwind: A People's History of the Nuclear WestbySarah Alisabeth Fox(Bison Books, 2014)
- A People's History of LondonbyLindsey German & John rees(Verso, 2012)
- The Blood Never Dried: A People's History of the British EmpirebyJohn Newsinger(London: Bookmarks, 2009)
- A Renegade History of the United StatesbyThaddeus Russell(New York: Free Press, 2010)
- A People's History of ScotlandbyChris Bambery(Verso, 2014)
- Montaillou: Cathars and Catholics in a French village: 1294–1324byEmmanuel Le Roy Ladurie(Penguin Books Ltd, 2013)
External links[edit]
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/df/Wikibooks-logo-en-noslogan.svg/40px-Wikibooks-logo-en-noslogan.svg.png)
- libcom
.org /history(formerly peopleshistory.co.uk) – a people's history website