Political Meanings In History

From People´S History To Microhistory

Abstract

Due to reflect about the Political Meanings in History, in this article we will seek some important historiographical references, through an historic overview, between 19th and 20th centuries. Those references may be divided in three moments: at the first one, in parallel with the rise of historiography itself, Political History had moved from a critical to a conservative view; the second one had been characterized by Marxist historiography, its heirs and the perspective of historical totality; at the third one, we will turn from totality, with Annales school´s first generations, to Michel Foucault´s perspective, passing through microhistory as well. In this trajectory, rather than expose different points of view, our proposal might open up some questions. Those distinct perspectives, and their historical context, should stimulate our reflection. The relationship between politics and history is dialectic, insofar as the last one conditions the first but, nevertheless, depends upon power relations on the most different levels. As those relations would never come to an end, new issues should emerge constantly to the surface of historical streams. In the first part of our reflections, which were analyzed in other article, we have discussed the historiographical production form political history to Marxist historiography. In this text we will do an overview study of historiography in the twentieth century, from people´s history to microhistory.