{"title":"Microstoria, Pacific History, and the Question of Scale: Two or Three Things That We Should Know About Them","authors":"Dario Di Rosa","doi":"10.1080/00223344.2017.1396570","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article is prompted by the recent debate on the so-called crisis in the humanities, and the related call for historians to change direction by returning to history of the longue durée. While pointing out that the ‘crisis’ is more influenced by the changing political economy of the tertiary education sector than by specific historiographical practices, I suggest that small-scale analysis remains compatible with global history approaches. Articulating a parallel examination of Pacific historiography and the Italian variant of microhistory, the article argues that the latter provides fertile stimuli for Pacific history. In particular, I maintain that integrating social analysis can serve to counterbalance the over-emphasis on cultural aspects found in much Pacific historiography.","PeriodicalId":45229,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF PACIFIC HISTORY","volume":"53 1","pages":"25 - 43"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4000,"publicationDate":"2018-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/00223344.2017.1396570","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"JOURNAL OF PACIFIC HISTORY","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00223344.2017.1396570","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"HISTORY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
ABSTRACT This article is prompted by the recent debate on the so-called crisis in the humanities, and the related call for historians to change direction by returning to history of the longue durée. While pointing out that the ‘crisis’ is more influenced by the changing political economy of the tertiary education sector than by specific historiographical practices, I suggest that small-scale analysis remains compatible with global history approaches. Articulating a parallel examination of Pacific historiography and the Italian variant of microhistory, the article argues that the latter provides fertile stimuli for Pacific history. In particular, I maintain that integrating social analysis can serve to counterbalance the over-emphasis on cultural aspects found in much Pacific historiography.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Pacific History is a refereed international journal serving historians, prehistorians, anthropologists and others interested in the study of mankind in the Pacific Islands (including Hawaii and New Guinea), and is concerned generally with political, economic, religious and cultural factors affecting human presence there. It publishes articles, annotated previously unpublished manuscripts, notes on source material and comment on current affairs. It also welcomes articles on other geographical regions, such as Africa and Southeast Asia, or of a theoretical character, where these are concerned with problems of significance in the Pacific.