Microhistorical Approach Research Articles

On the Value of the Microhistorical Approach: the Private Life of the Polytechnic Museum before 1917

On the Value of the Microhistorical Approach: the Private Life of the Polytechnic Museum before 1917

La storia dell’esercizio cinematografico di provincia in tre momenti storici. Il caso di Gardone Val Trompia

The article uses a microhistorical approach to Gardone Val Trompia’s movie theatres. Using archives, local newspapers and other sources, it retraces historical change in management’s forms of out-of-the-city exhibitors. The aim is to highlight their radical difference: never cinema-only venues and always entangled with the local administration and civil society. Three particular moments are discussed: the origins of rural cinema among politicized mutualistic societies; the dominance of non-profit venues during the fascist era, especially those managed by Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro; the renewal and ‘professionalization’ in the mid-1950s. It is also discussed how the government license impacted locally on the cinemas’ existence.

Вживання алкоголю в суспільстві Гетьманщини ХVІІІ ст. як маркер якості життя

The purpose of the article is to study the culture of alcohol consumption in the Hetmanate of the 18th century as a marker of quality of life. The author analyzed the diaries of Cossack elders and the epistolary heritage of this period, singled out references to the use of alcoholic beverages, circumstances, cases of abuse. The research methodology is determined by the purpose and features of the main sources and, in addition to the application of general scientific methods (analysis, synthesis), involves the use of a microhistorical approach, elements of prosopography and social history. Since it is primarily about the analysis of diaries, the theoretical work of the French researcher Philippe Lejeune was applied, who examined the development of diaries from the "accounting of the past" to emotional notes. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that alcohol consumption is not considered as a bad habit or a certain branch of the economy, but as a component of a person's leisure behavior, the realization of undesirable needs, which also determined the quality of life. It was concluded that from the point of view of traditional markers of quality, Ukrainian early modern society was quite homogeneous (life expectancy, mortality, diseases). Even the diet of the common people and the elite was often similar. But the consumption of alcoholic beverages was just one of those markers that at the everyday level testified to a higher or lower level of well-being. But their consumer culture was significantly different. Precisely from the point of view of alcohol consumption - frequency, volume, and its assortment, one can observe the difference in everyday life and its quality. Belonging to a higher social status and financial resources provided access to higher quality alcohol and higher quality of its consumption. At the same time, the Cossack elder of the Hetmanate had access to alcohol produced in different countries and corresponding to the lifestyle of the European nobility of that time. In this way, the "precious" people of old Ukraine were similar to the European establishment.

Shaping contexts through entrepreneurship: a micro-historical analysis of Hongbang entrepreneurs in China (1896-1949)

Purpose The purpose of this study is to address a significant gap in the understanding of entrepreneurship at the microfoundation level. It focuses on how individual entrepreneurs, specifically Hongbang entrepreneurs in China from 1896 to 1949, shape and transform their contexts. The aim is to provide a deeper understanding of the mechanisms that facilitate entrepreneurial success. Design/methodology/approach The study adopts a microhistorical approach, investigating the case of Hongbang entrepreneurs in China during 1896-1949. It involves an in-depth examination of historical records to explore the strategic interactions between these entrepreneurs and core stakeholders such as consumers, financial intermediaries, government regulators, and human resources. The research methodology emphasizes a process-oriented view, examining the evolution of personalized networks into extensive connections. Findings The research reveals that Hongbang entrepreneurs successfully reshaped their unfavorable embedded contexts by strategically collaborating with key stakeholders. They influenced consumer tastes, allied with financial intermediaries, negotiated with governments on regulation policies, and developed human resource stocks. The transformation was facilitated by the evolution of their networks from personalized to extensive connections. These findings highlight the localized strategies such as cronyism in resource acquisition within China’s private property development industry. Originality/value This study contributes to the field by offering insights into entrepreneurial contextualization and networking. It sheds light on the complex interplay between entrepreneurs and their contexts, providing a nuanced understanding of localized strategies in the Chinese context. The findings add value to the discourse on entrepreneurship by elucidating the strategic and processual acts through which entrepreneurs engage with stakeholders and reshape their environments.

Rethinking Church–State Relations in Seventeenth-Century Philippines: The Guerrero-Hurtado de Corcuera and Pardo-Audiencia Controversies

AbstractThe early modern Philippine archipelago is often described as being under the power of a frailocracy with a far-reaching impact. From a microhistorical approach of ecclesiastical contentiousness, I argue that the intermittent clashes between and inside the two pillars of colonial rule—the civil and ecclesiastical powers—belie the church's overarching control over state affairs. The church was not a monolithic unit in the Philippines, but was rather highly fragmented, especially in distant Asian enclaves, and it was not independent, but relied on royal patronage, diplomacy, and transnational networks. Using archival materials, official reports, religious manifestos, and royal appointments and decrees, I focus upon two significant case studies of the two exiled archbishops of Manila, Fray Hernando Guerrero, OSA, and Felipe Pardo, OP, to explore factionalism, negotiation, and microlevel political constellations as a way to approach conflicting church–state relations in seventeenth-century Philippines from a more nuanced perspective.

From Civilisational Encounter to Microhistories: Putting Western Learning in Local Places

Abstract Western Learning has long been conceptualised as an intellectual encounter between Chinese and Western civilisations, an approach exemplified by Joseph Needham and Jacques Gernet’s classical works. Today, this framework is no longer satisfactory. As an alternative, we advocate a microhistorical approach, which historians of Catholicism have fruitfully used to reveal the plurality of local, regional and global networks that made Catholicism possible in particular places. Similar microanalysis allows the history of Western Learning to reconceptualise the Jesuits’ European traditions materially through the circulation of books, and to separate the Chinese reaction into the two geographically, chronologically, and socially distinct models of patronage, driven respectively by late Ming literati and by the early and mid-Qing court. We suggest further research on the circulation of Western Learning beyond Beijing and Jiangnan in the eighteenth century, particularly in the peripheral regions of the empire and in the rural textual culture of Catholic communities.

“I Am a Poor Man with a Family”: Rangers, Social Welfare, and Monitor Networks in the Forests of Interwar Zlatna, Romania

In the interwar period, forestry emerged as a powerful tool through which state institutions attempted to shape social and natural environments in rural Romania. This article evaluates how criminality, poverty, surveillance, exploitation, and labor intersected in Romania’s forests through the figure of the forest ranger, responsible for a range of tasks from managing forest ecology to serving as the state’s representative in the woodlands. Using a microhistorical approach, the article recounts the story of a Zlatna ranger investigated for theft in the late 1920s. His story and the individuals involved offer important insight into the asymmetrical power relations and local social factors that negotiated the forests’ legibility. Rangers served as part crucial asset, part embarrassing liability, existing in a liminal space between the state and local society. Through local forestry agents, their informal networks, and the “involuntary monitors” these invariably created, state forestry officials had valuable points of contact with rural society. This article demonstrates the value of rural perspectives in historical studies, challenging prevailing notions that conceptualize rural people as simple, irrelevant, or singlemindedly opposed to the encroachment of the modern state.

Reconstructing the Labour of Care in Early Modern England

AbstractUncertainty about what constitutes work in the past has led to the labour of care occupying a shadowy place in the histories of both medicine and the economy. This article takes a microhistorical approach to shed new light on care in early modern England. Using depositions and other surviving records of a testamentary dispute heard in the Hereford diocesan church court in 1674–5, the article reconstructs the care received by a single, labouring man named Richard Howell. Focusing on forms of care that lay outside institutions, it unpicks the varieties of informal labour that society understood as care work in early modern England, including maintenance (provision of economic support for the sick, including lodging, food, and drink); physical or practical care (watching or attending the sick); and the emotional labour of care. The article challenges the idea that care work was simply undertaken by the family or carried out within a system of social obligation. It demonstrates that all forms of care in this pre-industrial society implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) held economic value, which could be leveraged as grounds for economic recompense in the early modern courts.

Dangerous liaisons, or strategies for family management in eighteenth-century Venice

ABSTRACTIn 1745, a lengthy and unusual case was brought before the Venetian Executors against Blasphemy, a secular court with jurisdiction over a wide range of crimes that violated standards of morality. The parents of two young women from the Venetian mainland state were accused of pimping their two eldest daughters to Jewish men from the Venetian Ghetto in return for financial support, helping them to support their ten children. But the story became much more complicated as the court investigated the young women’s relationships; one of the daughters did seem to have a relationship with a married Jew who had promised to convert and marry her, while the other was actually a nobleman’s courtesan, supported by the same patrician who served as a guardian to a young Giacomo Casanova. Although to the patricians who served as judges, any exploitation of a young woman’s sexuality was deemed criminal, ordinary eighteenth-century Venetians saw things differently. Large families were difficult to support, and all members contributed as they were able. Typically we think of apprenticeships, domestic service, and piecework as the key strategies for supporting a family and training children for their future lives. For women, historians have long acknowledged that service carried risks of sexual exploitation, as well. But what has not been recognised as a strategy is the encouragement of premarital relations or of sex work as alternatives to domestic service and piecework. Through a microhistorical approach, this article argues that the case of the Zambelli family shows us a wider range of morally ambiguous options for supporting a large family and setting up daughters to leave the family home, many of which included threats of sexual exploitation, damaged honour, and unwanted pregnancies.

Plas Newydd’s poetics of exchange: portraiture, poetry, and the intermediality of eighteenth-century gift culture

This article uses eighteenth-century correspondence and daily writing to unpack the complex networks of emotional, artistic, and poetic exchange that surrounded Plas Newydd, the home of the so-called ‘Ladies of Llangollen’, Sarah Ponsonby and Lady Eleanor Butler. It focuses on the gifting of a printed copy of George Romney’s painting Serena Reading (1782) to the women by the poet Anna Seward, viewed by the trio as a portrait. Using an interdisciplinary and microhistorical approach, the article places the image within two contexts: first, within an intricate display of gifted portraits at Plas Newydd; and second, in relation to Seward’s poetry. In so doing, it argues for the centrality of the cultural, emotional, and intellectual process of exchange as a way for understanding the emotional life of the period. By focusing on the literary lives of this portrait-object, the article also demonstrates the necessity of an intermedial approach to eighteenth-century visual and material culture, highlighting the productive possibilities of using textual sources to consider long-lost artworks.

The Beginning of the Solution of the Agrarian Question “from below” in the Spring of 1917 on the Example of Krasnoslobodsky Uyezd of Penza Province

Introduction. The article is devoted to the beginning of the peasants’ struggle for land in the conditions after the February revolution of 1917. Materials and Methods. The research uses materials from the Central State Archive of the Republic of Mordovia. In the work on this study, a problem-chronological method was used, as well as a micro-historical approach to consider all-Russian events at the county level. Results. The main content of the study is the beginning of the unfolding of the struggle of peasants with landlords for land. The peasantry, constrained by small land, by appealing to the authorities through writing sentences, seeks to pay attention to this and resolve the land issue in their favor. No less important problems of Krasnoslobodsk peasants were the lack of meadows for feeding and walking livestock, as well as numerous penalties imposed on them by landlords. These legal forms of struggle for the possession of land go in parallel with the pogroms of landlords’ estates and the removal of property and fodder from them. It is also worth noting the growing tension between local peasants and tenants from other settlements, to whom landlords leased their arable land and meadows. Discussion and Conclusion. The study confirmed that the local peasantry is an active participant in solving the agrarian issue “from below”, and its opponents in the form of various kinds of landowners are beginning to give up their positions. At the same time, the parties are trying to appeal to the local authorities, who, basically, are trying to take the position of an outside observer, without seriously interfering in the unfolding agrarian struggle.

Ташкент бегіліктерінің жерге иелік ету тарихынан (19 ғ. басы)

The article highlights and analyzes based on archival documents and historical sources the issues of land ownership in Tashkent in the early 19th century. Researched: the influence of Muslim law on the solution of land issues in the region, the harmonization of Muslim law and local customs in agriculture. Based on the above analysis, it is concluded that in Tashkent before the invasion of the Russian Empire, there was a peculiar and full-fledged legal institution of land tenure. Which was part of the legal institution of the Kokand Khanate and relied on Sharia law and the primordially ancient traditions of agriculture. The study was conducted based on the principle of historicism. In the course of the study were used a microhistorical approach, comparative, systematic, content analysis and problem-chronological methods.

International development contested: the American Child Health Section in Belgium (1922–1924)

ABSTRACT Failed humanitarian projects provide us with an opportunity to shed light on the complex interactions and conflicts among international donors, humanitarian workers and local recipients. This article explores such a contested and terminated project in post-First World War Belgium. The Child Health Section (1922–24) was a US international development programme initiated by Herbert Hoover and the Commission for Relief in Belgium Educational Foundation. Its aim was to provide health education to school children. Despite reaching 113,136 Belgian children between the ages of six and 12 in 1221 schools across the country, the project was abruptly discontinued after only one year. This contribution examines why the development assistance programme failed by using a micro-historical approach combined with concepts from development studies. The well-kept records of the CHS on the enduring conflicts with Belgian administrations reveal how US assumptions about their role in transforming or modernizing Europe clashed with (the diverse) European views on their own post-war reconstruction. This case demonstrates that the shift from providing short-term, needs-based humanitarian assistance to investing in long-term international development assistance did not always go smoothly or uncontested in post-war Europe.

Czech Sacred Places in Texas as the Key Element for Preserving Czech Identity

The process of Czech and Moravian immigration to Texas is a well-known phenomenon. Since 1848, tens of thousands decided to cross the ocean to seek a better future in the “Lone Star state.“ Although their history is well documented, there are still themes to be explored. Their religious activity and the connection it has created with their metropolis is one of them. The church and its institutions sent priests to America to attend to the immigrants in their mother tongue and helped them preserve their cultural identity. Furthermore, they organized the construction of their sacred places that would remind the parishioners of their home country. One example could be the famous painted churches still present in Texas today.
 This topic has not received proper attention from historians because it requires studying sources on both sides of the Atlantic. The presented contribution tries to change this unflattering fact using the microhistorical approach. Its aim is threefold. First, explain the historical dimension of the religious connection between the Czech and Moravian immigrants in Texas with their metropolis. Second, describe the sacred places of the immigrants, how they were built, what role they played in their everyday life, and how they established a bond with their country of origin. Third, what importance did the sacred places of the Czechs and Moravians have in preserving their language and cultural identity? The microhistorical approach demands the use of various and fragmented sources, and this study will be no exception. It will use archive material from Austria and the Czech Republic, principally the funds of the religious organizations that supported the immigrants in Texas, such as the Leopoldine Society. Furthermore, the article will use published contemporary personal recounts and secondary literature. The content of these sources will be critically analysed to answer the research questions and hopefully contribute to the theme of religion and its invaluable role in an immigrant society.

Becoming Chilean: Hipólito Gutiérrez and the Construction of Chilean National Identity During the War of the Pacific (1879–1881)

This article investigates a memoir written in 1881 by Hipólito Gutiérrez, a semi-literate man from rural Chile, about his experiences as a soldier in the War of the Pacific (1879–1884). Through a microhistorical approach, it seeks to contextualize the memoir with the aim of uncovering how Gutiérrez constructed himself to be Chilean through his participation in the war. Unlike assessments made by past scholars, Gutiérrez cannot be considered representative of Chilean peasant-soldiers. The memoir provides a window into which researchers can see agency in action by a subaltern actor and how national identity is constructed from below.

Soviet Justice and the Fight Against Crime in the Context of the Transition to a New Economic Policy: Informational and Ideological Aspect (on the Example of Nizhny Novgorod)

The new economic policy and overcoming the managerial crisis strengthened the educational value of the judicial system in the young Soviet state. On the way to the formation of a “revolutionary legal consciousness” in society, the authorities gradually overcame the negative attitude of the population towards the law enforcement system. By the beginning of the 1920s, an important role in improving the quality and efficiency of the judiciary was played by creating a positive image of Soviet justice through information and ideological support of the Soviet courts. This article discusses the problem of the decline in the authority of the judiciary in the post-revolutionary period through the prism of a local micro-historical approach to the application of historical and legal analysis on the example of the city of Nizhny Novgorod. The local newspaper publications serve as the empirical basis of the study. Chronologically, the study is limited to 1921, such a minimum temporal concentration allows us to trace the direct dynamics of substantive changes within the framework of the problem indicated in the article.

Svatodušní obchůzka královniček ve Svatobořicích- Mistříně. K současnému stavu obyčejové tradice

Applying the micro-historical approach, the presented study maps fifteen years of the renewed tradition of Královničky [Little Queens] in the Slovácko village of Svatobořice-Mistřín (District of Hodonín, Czech Republic). The treatise contains an analysis of transformations that the custom has undergone for the quite short time of its existence. Attention was paid both to the initiating impetuses and motivations leading to the revival, and to the role of persons and groups that have taken part in organizing the custom. One of the major objectives was to analyse the social and other functions that the Královničky (tied to Pentecost) are fulfilling towards the actors and the whole local community.

To Maintain or Adjust?: On the Whiteness of Swedish Men in the Congo Free State (1884–1914)

ABSTRACT During the High Imperialism era, it was not unusual that Nordic Europeans took up colonial positions in African colonies. Given the high number of Swedish citizens in the Congo Free State, this paper analyses the written and visual ego-documents of those who worked there as missionaries, soldiers, steamboat captains or traders. The presented sources include diary entries, letters and a photograph. The goal is to establish to which extent Swedish men in particular tried to maintain or adjust their status as white men and how they engaged with being part of an inherently racist colonial system that encouraged notions of white supremacy. Some questions to be addressed are to which extent ego-documents and a micro-historical approach help analyse how Swedish colonisers understood their roles and identities as representatives of white culture and how they communicated those to themselves and other audiences. To which lengths did these men go to practice whiteness when in the Congo Free State and when did so-called contact zones lead to acculturation and acceptance of local habits? How important was the sense of a white identity to them? To this purpose, a set of tools is presented that includes the analysis of private documents in combination with micro-history, whiteness and masculinity studies. Ultimately, a selection of transimperial agents and their sources shows how whiteness was more important than citizenship and how features of masculinity engaged with the former.

Provisions, Passports and the Problems of International Warfare in Early Eighteenth-Century Northern Italy: A Micro-Historical Study

The relationship between the rise of the modern European state and military resource mobilization has been studied either through the capacity of Europe's fiscal-military states to mobilize war-making resources internally or the continued importance of private, non-state contractors to fund, recruit and supply armies. Missing from this literature is an understanding of how military contractors acquired supplies outside of national borders as well as the sorts of diplomatic and personal connections these contractors drew upon to move war goods across multiple jurisdictions for hundreds of miles. This article adopts a micro-historical approach to the history of military resource mobilization, paying close attention to one shipment of grain purchased in central Europe by the British army during the War of Spanish Succession (1701–1714). By studying closely how British money paid French Huguenot contractors to buy the grain and transmit it across northern Italy to feed German and Spanish troops fighting in Spain, this one case shows how scholarship can move towards a transnational history of military logistics based on key urban centres rather than nations and borders.

A singular find, a global story: an artefact Biography of a French tobacco pipestem found at an American Civil War encampment in Williamsburg, VA

Summary This paper takes a microhistorical approach to the examination of a marked clay pipestem found at an American Civil War Encampment in Williamsburg, VA. A biography of the object, from its manufacture at the Fiolet factory in Saint Omer, France to its use in Williamsburg VA, is used as an interpretive tool to investigate the meanings of this object to its consumer. By comparing this site to other sites in the English-speaking world where similarly marked objects have been recovered by archaeologists, the nature and causes of globalization in the second half of the 1800s are examined. This research demonstrates the value of bottom-up, artefact-focused research when examining important questions about large scale historical events and processes.