Alltagsgeschichte


Alltagsgeschichte is a form of microhistory that was particularly prevalent among German historians during the 1980s. It was founded by historians Alf Luedtke and :de:Hans Medick|Hans Medick. Alltagsgeschichte can be considered part of the wider Marxian historical school of 'history from below'. It challenged the well-known framework of :de:Strukturgeschichte|Strukturgeschichte, “structured history”, within the German historical field and advocated for a new model of social history.

Background

Alltagsgeschichte developed from the social and political upheavals of the 1960s when new social movements began to mobilize with political and academic voices. The purpose of Alltagsgeschichte is to find and prove the links between the everyday, basic experiences of ordinary people in a society, and the broad social and political changes which occur in that society. Alltagsgeschichte becomes a form of microhistory because this massively broad endeavour to undertakecan only feasibly be practiced on the most minute of scales. With the political shift in Germany during the 1990s, many historians deemed Alltagsgeschichte a casualty of the move from social history towards cultural history.
Alltagsgeschichte's leading proponents include Paul Veyne and Michel Rouche in France, and Peter Carr in the United Kingdom. Alltagsgeschichte can also be linked to the Italian historical doctrine of Microstoria.

Popular culture

An example of Alltagsgeschichte bleeding into popular culture in Europe can be seen in the Austrian documentary series of the same name, produced between 1985 and 2006 by Elisabeth T. Spira. The series chronicled the everyday lives and stories of Austrian people in over 60 episodes.

Publications

  • The History of Everyday Life by German historian Alf Lüdtke
  • Alltagsgeschichte - ein Bericht von unterwegs, by Alf Lüdtke, in Historische Anthropologie No. 11, pp. 278–295
  • A History of Private Life: from Pagan Rome to Byzantium, Paul Veyne, ed.
  • Portavo: an Irish Townland and its Peoples, Parts One and Two, by Peter Carr
  • The History of Everyday Life: A second chapter", by Paul Steege, Andrew Bergerson, Maureen Healy and Pamela E. Swett, in The Journal of Modern History'', No. 80, pp. 358–378