social history
Commoners through time
Social history is a branch of historical study that focuses on the lives of ordinary people rather than political leaders, wars, or institutions.
It examines how people lived, worked, loved, and died—their daily routines, family structures, customs, and material conditions.
In medical contexts, a social history is the portion of a patient's record covering lifestyle factors: occupation, living situation, tobacco and alcohol use, sexual activity.
The doctor took a detailed social history before the examination.
Study of small-scale pasts
- archivesStored historical documents
- primary sourcesFirsthand historical evidence
- documentaryFactual film about reality
- ethnographySystematic study of peoples
anthropology · historiography · bottom-up · marginalized voices · subaltern · lived experience
Domestic unit of residents
- family lifeShared household existence
- childhoodLife's earliest phase
- marriageFormal union between partners
- foodwaysCultural practices around eating
clothing · housing · leisure · recreation · festivals · customs · rituals · community
Laborers lacking capital ownership
- bourgeoisieCapitalist ownership class
- peasantryRural working class
- aristocracyRule by hereditary elite
- gentryHighborn but not noble
working class · middle class · underclass · nobility · commoners · stratification · mobility · inequality
Right to cast ballots
- emancipationRelease from legal bondage
- abolitionFormal discontinuation of practice
- civil rightsGuaranteed individual legal protections
- labor movementOrganized effort for worker rights
feminism · temperance · reform · revolution · uprising · protest · resistance · solidarity
Land-for-service social structure
- capitalismPrivate profit-based economy
- colonialismDomination through foreign settlement
- imperialismExtending dominion over others
- slaveryOwnership of people
serfdom · mercantilism · industrialism · communism · apartheid · segregation · patronage · guild system
Movement to new territory
- urbanizationPopulation shift toward cities
- populationAll inhabitants combined
- mortalityState of eventual death
- fertilityCapacity for reproduction
census · diaspora · immigration · emigration · settlement · displacement · famine · epidemic
Place of Christian worship
- schoolPlace of instruction
- hospitalMedical treatment facility
- prisonConfinement for offenders
- workhouseInstitution housing poor laborers
asylum · orphanage · almshouse · union · cooperative · fraternal organization · mutual aid · charity
microhistory
Study of small-scale pasts
- archivesStored historical documents
- primary sourcesFirsthand historical evidence
- documentaryFactual film about reality
ethnography · anthropology · historiography · bottom-up · marginalized voices · subaltern · lived experience
household
Domestic unit of residents
- family lifeShared household existence
- childhoodLife's earliest phase
- marriageFormal union between partners
foodways · clothing · housing · leisure · recreation · festivals · customs · rituals · community · neighborhood
proletariat
Laborers lacking capital ownership
- bourgeoisieCapitalist ownership class
- peasantryRural working class
- aristocracyRule by hereditary elite
gentry · working class · middle class · underclass · nobility · commoners · stratification · mobility · inequality · hierarchy
suffrage
Right to cast ballots
- emancipationRelease from legal bondage
- abolitionFormal discontinuation of practice
- civil rightsGuaranteed individual legal protections
labor movement · feminism · temperance · reform · revolution · uprising · protest · resistance · solidarity · activism
feudalism
Land-for-service social structure
- capitalismPrivate profit-based economy
- colonialismDomination through foreign settlement
- imperialismExtending dominion over others
slavery · serfdom · mercantilism · industrialism · communism · apartheid · segregation · patronage · guild system · sharecropping
migration
Movement to new territory
- urbanizationPopulation shift toward cities
- populationAll inhabitants combined
- mortalityState of eventual death
fertility · census · diaspora · immigration · emigration · settlement · displacement · famine · epidemic · life expectancy
church
Place of Christian worship
workhouse · asylum · orphanage · almshouse · union · cooperative · fraternal organization · mutual aid · charity · welfare
- nonfictionbiography, autobiography, biographies, memoir, documentary
- cultural historycultural artifacts, cultural memory, cultural movements, collective memory, cultural institutions
- historieschronicle, annals, historical record, historical account, historical narrative
- history educationhistorian, textbook, primary source, secondary source, lesson plans
- Roman studiesAugustus, Caesar, Cicero, emperors, consuls
- historical surveyscensus, poll, land survey, tax record, parish register
social historypolitical history
Study of past governance
military history · constitutional history · legal history · economic history · church history
history, social, society, associate, association, sociable, associated, socialism, antisocial