Giovanni levi biography and microhistory topics

Intensive historical investigation of a well-defined smaller unit of research

Microhistory is a genre of history that focuses on small units of research, such as an event, community, individual or a settlement.

In its ambition, however, microhistory can be distinguished from a simple case study insofar as microhistory aspires to "[ask] large questions in small places", according to the definition given by Charles Joyner.^[1] It is closely associated with social and cultural history.

Origins

Microhistory became popular in Italy in the 1970s. According to Giovanni Levi, one of the pioneers of the approach, it began as a reaction to a perceived crisis in existing historiographical approaches.Carlo Ginzburg, another of microhistory's founders, has written that he first heard the term used around 1977, and soon afterwards began to work with Levi and Simona Cerutti on Microstorie, a series of microhistorical works.

The word "microhistory" dates back t