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Section 1: Introduction to Social HistoryDefining Social History | Asking Social History Questions | Sources for Learning About Social History Defining Social HistoryOften, people think the study of history means studying governments, battles, and national leaders. These are important history topics, but historians learn much about history by studying the lives of everyday people as well.Social history is the history of the everyday experiences and beliefs of ordinary people. Social historians look at teachers, store clerks, factory workers, police officers, the unemployed, children, computer programmers -- all kinds of people you might meet in your own life. The number of social history topics is huge because social history looks at every aspect of day-to-day life -- family life, recreation, work, social life, religious beliefs, and more. Most social historians study one group of people (such as Japanese Americans), one particular area (such as the Great Plains in Nebraska), or a specific topic within social history (such as family life).
Asking Social History QuestionsImagine that you are a social historian studying family life in Massachusetts in three different periods of history. What kinds of questions would you ask?Here are examples of questions you might research:
Sources for Learning About Social HistorySocial historians use many sources -- diaries, letters, songs, census information, artifacts including clothing and tools, photographs, public records including birth, marriage and death certificates, and oral histories. In this lesson, you will use oral histories to explore social history. You will start by studying oral histories collected as part of the Federal Writers' Project in the 1930s. Then you will conduct some oral history interviews yourself. When you have finished this section, go ahead to Oral History and the Federal Writers' Project.
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Last updated 09/26/2002 |