Bloomsbury Handbook of Microhistory : Origins, Present State and Prospects

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Microhistory provides the first detailed examination of a field which has rapidly expanded in the last three decades. Characterised by a focus on the very small, an obsessive thoroughness of investigation and an inventiveness of exposition, microhistory has matured significantly as an approach amongst historical researchers and practitioners over the past five decades. Consequently, an overview of this nature – surveying microhistory''s origins, current state and future directions – is a critical development for this increasingly vibrant area of the discipline.

The Handbook is arranged in four thematic Parts: Decades of Insight into Microhistory, Microhistory around the World, Microhistory as an Epistemology, and Microhistory as a Conceptual Framework. With contributions from world-renowned scholars, including Natalie Zemon Davis, Carlo Ginzburg and Giovanni Levi, and the international involvement of experts based in Brazil, the United States, Canada, Iceland, Hungary, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Africa, and India, this collection innovatively merges the local and the global as it presents the most authoritative exploration of microhistory published to date.