Microhistory

Microhistory is the intensive historical investigation of a well defined smaller unit of research (most often a single event, community of a village, family or person). In its ambition, however, microhistory can be distinguished from a simple case study insofar as microhistory aspires to "[ask] large questions in small places", to use the definition given by Charles Joyner ...more

All Consuming: Why We Eat the Way We Eat Now
Whack Job: A History of Axe Murder
Over My Dead Body: Unearthing the Hidden History of America’s Cemeteries
Who Ate the First Oyster?: The Extraordinary People Behind the Greatest Firsts in History
Waste Wars: The Wild Afterlife of Your Trash
Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves
The LEGO Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination
Worn: A People's History of Clothing
Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America
Foreign Fruit: A Personal History of the Orange
Dolls of Our Lives
Nuts and Bolts: Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World in a Big Way
American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15
Hands of Time: A Watchmaker’s History
Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America's Food Industry
Salt: A World History
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World
At Home: A Short History of Private Life
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
Color: A Natural History of the Palette
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World
A History of the World in 6 Glasses
The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Just My Type: A Book About Fonts
Rain: A Natural and Cultural History
The Mass by Guy OuryGothic Pride by Brian ReganThe Last Great Acts of Saint Peter  by Edward N BrownMother of God by Miri RubinLinking Your Beads by Patricia Kasten
Catholic Microhistories (nonfiction)
37 books — 3 voters
Salt by Mark KurlanskyCod by Mark KurlanskyThe Botany of Desire by Michael PollanAn Edible History of Humanity by Tom StandageFour Fish by Paul   Greenberg
Food & Drink Histories (nonfiction)
193 books — 41 voters

The Soul of an Octopus by Sy MontgomeryThe Horse by Wendy   WilliamsInside of a Dog by Alexandra HorowitzHow to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog) by Lee Alan DugatkinThe Birds of Pandemonium by Michele Raffin
Animal Science for Adults
270 books — 78 voters
The Frozen River by Ariel LawhonBurial Rites by Hannah KentHamnet by Maggie O'FarrellFever by Mary Beth KeaneEuphoria by Lily King
Micro-Historical Fiction
133 books — 15 voters


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History is not merely about kings and their wars. We should know the story of people at large-not necessarily only those of politicians or film stars. How else can we relate to the lives of people influenced by the socio-political milieu, beyond their control?
S.Krishnaswamy

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Tags contributing to this page include: microhistory, micro-history, and microhistories