Maybe it’s because I focus on microhistory, but seems the books making sweeping points using a few limited examples were often wrong. The deeper one gets in the documents, the harder it is to justify large sweeping “truths.”
November 1, 2026 at 11:07 PM
Maybe it’s because I focus on microhistory, but seems the books making sweeping points using a few limited examples were often wrong. The deeper one gets in the documents, the harder it is to justify large sweeping “truths.”
My dissertation uses microhistory, so I’m citing Natalie Zemon Davis, Carlos Ginzberg & Clifford Geertz. Mainly to explain how microhistory developed, but I’m not really making extensive use of their work. Seems the older founders of areas of inquiry are getting namechecked, which makes sense.
November 1, 2026 at 10:52 PM
My dissertation uses microhistory, so I’m citing Natalie Zemon Davis, Carlos Ginzberg & Clifford Geertz. Mainly to explain how microhistory developed, but I’m not really making extensive use of their work. Seems the older founders of areas of inquiry are getting namechecked, which makes sense.
My latest round-up of reading and listening recommendations, taking in microhistory, publishing industries, and the Russo-Ukrainian war, among other themes. 🧵
#skystorians🗃️ #lit #literaturesky #bookhistory
#skystorians🗃️ #lit #literaturesky #bookhistory
Stop, Look, and Listen #71
A round-up of what I have been reading and listening to this past week.
academicbubble.substack.com
November 3, 2026 at 5:39 PM
My latest round-up of reading and listening recommendations, taking in microhistory, publishing industries, and the Russo-Ukrainian war, among other themes. 🧵
#skystorians🗃️ #lit #literaturesky #bookhistory
#skystorians🗃️ #lit #literaturesky #bookhistory
i can't stop saying "Da Cheese and da Woimz", as if Sluggo was getting really into microhistory
October 30, 2026 at 1:53 PM
i can't stop saying "Da Cheese and da Woimz", as if Sluggo was getting really into microhistory
Re-upping for the Wednesday crowd: My round-up of reading and listening recommendations, taking in microhistory, publishing industries, and the Russo-Ukrainian war, among other themes. 🧵
All reposts (and subscriptions) much appreciated. x
All reposts (and subscriptions) much appreciated. x
Stop, Look, and Listen #71
A round-up of what I have been reading and listening to this past week.
academicbubble.substack.com
November 4, 2026 at 1:23 PM
Re-upping for the Wednesday crowd: My round-up of reading and listening recommendations, taking in microhistory, publishing industries, and the Russo-Ukrainian war, among other themes. 🧵
All reposts (and subscriptions) much appreciated. x
All reposts (and subscriptions) much appreciated. x
Deb Harkness’s @draftingthepast.bsky.social interview is really great on this. And historians who want to experiment with style with less concern for mass audience have other options: microhistory, creative non-fiction, speculative non-fiction, etc. They don’t need literary fiction
October 26, 2026 at 7:12 PM
Deb Harkness’s @draftingthepast.bsky.social interview is really great on this. And historians who want to experiment with style with less concern for mass audience have other options: microhistory, creative non-fiction, speculative non-fiction, etc. They don’t need literary fiction
Learn more: liberalarts.utexas.edu/history/even...
October 27, 2026 at 2:03 PM
Learn more: liberalarts.utexas.edu/history/even...
Finally decided on a course for the spring semester--a seminar on microhistory. It's all about studying unusual events or people rather than the usual stuff we all already know. Considering I'm eyeballing some local history & lore for a future novel, this is SO right up my alley.
October 23, 2026 at 7:40 PM
Finally decided on a course for the spring semester--a seminar on microhistory. It's all about studying unusual events or people rather than the usual stuff we all already know. Considering I'm eyeballing some local history & lore for a future novel, this is SO right up my alley.
Either way, the fact all that actually happened for real is so crazy, 17th century chicks were crazy freaked out, and Huxleys book is lowkey kind of an important predecesor to a lot of microhistory, but no one talks about that because his degree wasnt in historiography and thats a little fucked too
October 24, 2026 at 11:54 PM
Either way, the fact all that actually happened for real is so crazy, 17th century chicks were crazy freaked out, and Huxleys book is lowkey kind of an important predecesor to a lot of microhistory, but no one talks about that because his degree wasnt in historiography and thats a little fucked too
Interested in small histories that offer big insights? Check out Prof. Jonathan Saha's new chapter, 'From the Horse's Mouth: Microhistory and Animal History' in the just-published BLOOMSBURY HANDBOOK OF MICROHISTORY 🐴https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/bloomsbury-handbook-of-microhistory-9781350461147/
The Bloomsbury Handbook of Microhistory
The Bloomsbury Handbook of Microhistory provides the first detailed examination of a field which has rapidly expanded in the last three decades. Characterised b…
www.bloomsbury.com
October 21, 2026 at 8:17 AM
Interested in small histories that offer big insights? Check out Prof. Jonathan Saha's new chapter, 'From the Horse's Mouth: Microhistory and Animal History' in the just-published BLOOMSBURY HANDBOOK OF MICROHISTORY 🐴https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/bloomsbury-handbook-of-microhistory-9781350461147/
Well, Italian historians largely agree on what microhistory is!
October 21, 2026 at 8:02 AM
Well, Italian historians largely agree on what microhistory is!
This is a very real challenge. I remember early in my PhD presenting my work with a microhistorical framework (based mostly on the Anglophone literature), and Francesca (rightly) told me "...yeah, this isn't microhistory". Microhistory seems to mean very different things to different scholars
October 21, 2026 at 7:52 AM
This is a very real challenge. I remember early in my PhD presenting my work with a microhistorical framework (based mostly on the Anglophone literature), and Francesca (rightly) told me "...yeah, this isn't microhistory". Microhistory seems to mean very different things to different scholars
This is why I've always shied away from claiming to be doing microhistory. The other reason is just that I think it is actually very difficult to do.
October 21, 2026 at 9:26 AM
This is why I've always shied away from claiming to be doing microhistory. The other reason is just that I think it is actually very difficult to do.
Forthcoming book cover (out in early 2027 with Bloomsbury). It will feature a microhistory of the fascinating trial of Antonio/Vitoria, plus an edition of the original 1556-7 Portuguese trial document and an English translation.
October 20, 2026 at 7:14 AM
Forthcoming book cover (out in early 2027 with Bloomsbury). It will feature a microhistory of the fascinating trial of Antonio/Vitoria, plus an edition of the original 1556-7 Portuguese trial document and an English translation.
Nice post Will! This is something we often worried away at on the monster, which mostly confirmed that no one can agree what a microhistory is. Usually I think people place the emphasis more on one aspect than the other: Normal [culture] exceptional [individual]
manyheadedmonster.com?s=microhisto...
manyheadedmonster.com?s=microhisto...
Search Results for “microhistory” – the many-headed monster
the history of 'the unruly sort of clowns' and other early modern peculiarities
manyheadedmonster.com
October 21, 2026 at 7:51 AM
Nice post Will! This is something we often worried away at on the monster, which mostly confirmed that no one can agree what a microhistory is. Usually I think people place the emphasis more on one aspect than the other: Normal [culture] exceptional [individual]
manyheadedmonster.com?s=microhisto...
manyheadedmonster.com?s=microhisto...
I've come to the conclusion that claiming to be doing microhistory too often raises more questions than it answers. The things often associated with microhistorical methodologies are things that can be articulated in their own terms without getting bogged down in an unfortunate intellectual quagmire
October 21, 2026 at 9:37 AM
I've come to the conclusion that claiming to be doing microhistory too often raises more questions than it answers. The things often associated with microhistorical methodologies are things that can be articulated in their own terms without getting bogged down in an unfortunate intellectual quagmire
I was once asked (by a bsky mutual) in a postdoc interview “what’s the difference between a microhistory and a case study?” and on the spot I completely floundered. Been thinking about it a lot more in the years since
October 21, 2026 at 8:03 AM
I was once asked (by a bsky mutual) in a postdoc interview “what’s the difference between a microhistory and a case study?” and on the spot I completely floundered. Been thinking about it a lot more in the years since
📯 Está em curso um concurso para a contratação de um investigador/a doutorado/a (Júnior) para integrar a equipa do projecto "PETROSINES – A Global Microhistory of the Sines Area Project (1971-1999)", coordenado por Ricardo Noronha.
📅 Prazo: 30 de Outubro
ℹ️ Edital: ihc.fcsh.unl.pt/ij-petrosine...
📅 Prazo: 30 de Outubro
ℹ️ Edital: ihc.fcsh.unl.pt/ij-petrosine...
Investigador/a Júnior — Projecto PETROSINES | Oportunidades | IHC
Selecção de um investigador doutorado para integrar a equipa do projecto PETROSINES – A Global Microhistory of the Sines Area Project (1971-1999).
ihc.fcsh.unl.pt
October 22, 2026 at 10:11 AM
📯 Está em curso um concurso para a contratação de um investigador/a doutorado/a (Júnior) para integrar a equipa do projecto "PETROSINES – A Global Microhistory of the Sines Area Project (1971-1999)", coordenado por Ricardo Noronha.
📅 Prazo: 30 de Outubro
ℹ️ Edital: ihc.fcsh.unl.pt/ij-petrosine...
📅 Prazo: 30 de Outubro
ℹ️ Edital: ihc.fcsh.unl.pt/ij-petrosine...
Whereas historians of early modern England did not, at least in the teens. Since many of these are based in England, I often wonder how much REF has to do with this - the need to frame your case study as always very historically significant, so everything gets called a microhistory.
October 21, 2026 at 8:04 AM
Whereas historians of early modern England did not, at least in the teens. Since many of these are based in England, I often wonder how much REF has to do with this - the need to frame your case study as always very historically significant, so everything gets called a microhistory.
And, as someone who was forced to learn enough Italian to read a lot of Grendi and Levi during my MA, I definitely agree with Francesca - although I don’t think microhistory succeeded in its own terms. Still, it’s an extraordinary generative literature that should be better known.
October 21, 2026 at 7:58 AM
And, as someone who was forced to learn enough Italian to read a lot of Grendi and Levi during my MA, I definitely agree with Francesca - although I don’t think microhistory succeeded in its own terms. Still, it’s an extraordinary generative literature that should be better known.
Good piece on a great article. I’m always amazed by the skewed reading even well-read Anglophone historians have of microhistory, largely because they don’t read Italian and, even when good pieces by Levi, Cerutti, and Francesca are available, Ginzburg sucks all the oxygen of the room.
October 21, 2026 at 7:35 AM
Good piece on a great article. I’m always amazed by the skewed reading even well-read Anglophone historians have of microhistory, largely because they don’t read Italian and, even when good pieces by Levi, Cerutti, and Francesca are available, Ginzburg sucks all the oxygen of the room.
Of its role of using extraordinary archival research to ask questions, if not to offer answers - unlike almost everywhere else (France as the main exception, because they have Simona Cerutti and Jacques Revel at the EHESS), where microhistory is often a way to puff up case/local studies.
October 21, 2026 at 8:41 AM
Of its role of using extraordinary archival research to ask questions, if not to offer answers - unlike almost everywhere else (France as the main exception, because they have Simona Cerutti and Jacques Revel at the EHESS), where microhistory is often a way to puff up case/local studies.
I love podcast convos with historians, but can we please let go of the myth that “historians” don’t care about writing/storytelling or shy away from inserting themselves & their research, as if we don’t have half a century of microhistory, gender history, & postcolonial/colonial history behind us? 🗃️
October 19, 2026 at 10:50 PM
I love podcast convos with historians, but can we please let go of the myth that “historians” don’t care about writing/storytelling or shy away from inserting themselves & their research, as if we don’t have half a century of microhistory, gender history, & postcolonial/colonial history behind us? 🗃️
They sometimes acknowledge (even to criticize it) the divide between a more cultural microhistory (represented by “The Cheese and the Worms”) and a more social form (represented by Grendi and Levi). But even so they share a common understanding of the historiographical foundations and…
October 21, 2026 at 8:41 AM
They sometimes acknowledge (even to criticize it) the divide between a more cultural microhistory (represented by “The Cheese and the Worms”) and a more social form (represented by Grendi and Levi). But even so they share a common understanding of the historiographical foundations and…
Concurso contratação de um investigador/a doutorado/a (Júnior) equipa do projecto "PETROSINES – A Global Microhistory of the Sines Area Project (1971-1999)", coordenado por Ricardo Noronha. O contrato terá a duração de 18 meses.
📅Até 30 de Outubro
ℹ️Edital: ihc.fcsh.unl.pt/ij-petrosine...
📅Até 30 de Outubro
ℹ️Edital: ihc.fcsh.unl.pt/ij-petrosine...
Investigador/a Júnior — Projecto PETROSINES | Oportunidades | IHC
Selecção de um investigador doutorado para integrar a equipa do projecto PETROSINES – A Global Microhistory of the Sines Area Project (1971-1999).
ihc.fcsh.unl.pt
October 19, 2026 at 4:26 PM
Concurso contratação de um investigador/a doutorado/a (Júnior) equipa do projecto "PETROSINES – A Global Microhistory of the Sines Area Project (1971-1999)", coordenado por Ricardo Noronha. O contrato terá a duração de 18 meses.
📅Até 30 de Outubro
ℹ️Edital: ihc.fcsh.unl.pt/ij-petrosine...
📅Até 30 de Outubro
ℹ️Edital: ihc.fcsh.unl.pt/ij-petrosine...