Story from below
History from below is an approach that aims to research and present the everyday history of discriminated groups - mostly in a regional context. Often this is done with the help of archives from below and history workshops . As the bearer of this history from below which is a new historical movement named.
Historical development of the story from below
In the USA , the History from Below developed inspired by the Annales school of French history in the 1960s. As grassroots history or social history, it dealt with the American civil rights movement in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s. The writing The Making of the English Working Class (1963) by the British historian EP Thompson, as well as his socio-historical writings, are considered milestones in history from below. Similarly, the Indian historian Ranajit Guha founded the Subaltern Studies Group in the 1980s .
According to Bernd Hüttner , the practice of a story from below in Germany developed in three steps:
- Since the 1960s, political and intellectual history, perceived as hegemonic ("statesmen make history"), has been criticized by historical social science , which advocated the emphasis on social processes and structures. She examined classes and strata , technical innovation and economics .
- Everyday history , which is closely related to the New Social Movements of the late 1970s, criticized historical social science for the fact that the individual , his everyday life and individual interpretations did not appear there.
- In the 1980s, the history workshops were founded , in which feminist , trade union and other volunteer and academic historians came together.
Process of acquiring history
According to Gerhard Paul and Bernhard Schoßig, the appropriation of history, which underlies the story from below , takes place in a democratic process, which they characterize as open, active and public:
- Open: the research results are open insofar as they do not have to serve any legitimation , but are open to discussion and interpretation by those affected and involved.
- Active: the (lay) researchers of a story from below are themselves subjects who deal with history.
- Public: the story from below is substantially dependent on the public.
- "Research focuses and questions are developed autonomously and are not prescribed;
- the research process of (lay) historians is conceived as a collective learning process;
- the research instruments are not taken over from scientific tradition and conformity without being checked, but are used in accordance with the research subject;
- Detours are consciously accepted because there is no direct scientific connection between exploitation;
- cooperative work is opposed to competition;
- Above all, however, the information obtained and the interrelationships worked out do not remain secret knowledge that collects dust in the study and library, but are made public and passed on to the village, city or association public in a way that is appropriate to the participants. " (Gerhard Paul, Bernhard Schoßig)
literature
- Berliner Geschichtswerkstatt (Ed.): Everyday culture, subjectivity and history. On the theory and practice of everyday history. Münster 1994, ISBN 3-924550-95-6 .
- Etta Grotrian: Controversies about the sovereignty of interpretation. Museum debate, historians' dispute and “new history movement” in the Federal Republic of the 1980s. In: Journal of Religious and Intellectual History. 61, 2009, pp. 372-389.
- Hannes Heer , Volker Ullrich: Discover history. Experiences and projects of the new history movement. Reinbek 1985, ISBN 3-499-17935-0 .
- Sven Lindqvist : Dig where you stand. Handbook for Researching Your Own History. Verlag JHW Dietz Nachf., Bonn 1989, ISBN 3-8012-0144-9 . (Swedish original: 1978)
- Heinz Niemann: Methodical and source-critical aspects of “writing history from below”. In: Yearbook for research on the history of the labor movement . Volume III, 2007.
- Gerhard Paul, Bernhard Schossig (Ed.): The other story. History from below, securing evidence, ecological history, history workshops. Cologne 1986, ISBN 3-7663-0946-3 .
Known historical investigations
- Edward P. Thompson : The Making of the English Working Class . 1963
- Howard Zinn : A People's History of the United States . 1980; revised 1995, ISBN 0-06-052837-0 .