Is There a Future for Italian Microhistory in the Age of Global History?

Trivellato, Francesca

doi:10.5070/c321009025

Cited by 116 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…39 Combining the macro and the micro is essential if we want to understand how this abstract phenomenon of public indebtedness, saturated with figures, long-term commitments, and byzantine mechanisms, has affected the social, economic, and political life of millions of people over time. 40 The divide between theoretical and statistical macro-approaches, on the one hand, and the type of microhistory that social and cultural historians are crafting, on the other, needs to be filled if we want to get a sense of what "public debt" really meant for societies in history. The various chapters gathered in this volume mark a first step in this direction; they look at the "global chains" of capital and public debt, which connect people and institutions from different social backgrounds, countries, and continents, not only today but already in the late eighteenth century.…”

Section: Public Debt and Capitalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

A World of Public Debts

Grafe¹

2020

Palgrave Studies in the History of Finance

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I try and talk economics in the Eurogroup, which nobody does," Yanis Varoufakis recounted after his brief tenure as finance minister of Greece in 2014-2015. "It's not that it didn't go down well-it's that there was point blank refusal to engage in economic arguments. Point blank." 1 This confessed culture shock by an academic suddenly thrown into the midst of professional politicians at the height of an unprecedented crisis within the European Union unveils, perhaps, a certain political naiveté as much as it reveals the diplomatic disadvantage at which Greece, which he represented, then stood. Yet it also highlights that the sovereign debt crisis within the Eurozone was not only, or even mainly, about the economy: it was about politics, institutions, and solidarity. If anything, it put the lie to the usual mantra that managing a public debt, and public finances more generally, is a matter of technical expertise best left to those who know the laws of economics. Experts, it appeared, made decisions which were no less political than that of others. This is not to say that the problem was to let politics enter the management of an economic problem, somehow distorting the "pure" economics of a solution. This is not to say, either, that public debt is only politics, and that its economic parameters could only yield to political will. It is to say, however, that public debts are inherently political objects as much as they are economic. The Greek crisis did not inject politics into an economic domain that gently hums in the background in fair weather. It unveiled how political public debt always is, even when it is not the focus of political debate. For public debt raises issues about the distribution of power and resources within and across societies, revealing as well as enhancing transfers of liabilities between social groups and generations. IntroductIon vi INTRoDUCTIoNThis book sets out to explore exactly this political nature of public debt, both domestically and internationally. While public debt is a financial transaction-creating a relation between (mostly) private investors and a sovereign body (the former lending money to the latter, who pledges to repay the principal plus interests in a more or less distant future)-it is also, and inseparably, an instrument of power, a social relationship, and a political arena in which interests and values collide. 2 Public debt binds together major political issues, such as the power of the state to tax and spend, its legitimate role to regulate markets, and the social distribution of collective resources between bondholders and taxpayers. Drawing inspiration from the "new fiscal sociology" and the renewed interest of political historians in economic matters, this book aims to grasp public debt issues in all their dimensions, be they economic or political, legal, intellectual, social, or moral. 3 For we need this kind of "total history" to understand why our present is so deeply framed and impacted by public indebtedness.

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Section: Public Debt and Capitalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

A World of Public Debts

Grafe¹

2020

Palgrave Studies in the History of Finance

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“…65,66,67,68 A fourth characteristic of microhistory is its writing about multiple contexts in people's lives, beliefs, choices, and behaviors, alluded to above. 69,70,71,72 People make decisions and act in their lives in multiple contexts, including political, economic, religious, social, and family. Some of these include multiple conflicting influences such as differing opinions among families or in social circles.…”

Section: Microhistory Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Writing That Is Not Written: Clues, the Unconscious, the Indirect, and Traces; What Genealogy Can Learn from Microhistory

Hatton¹

2022

JGFH

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After reviewing recent genealogists' writings advocating that genealogy is a kind of microhistory, the article lists six characteristics of microhistory, and argues that genealogy is not microhistory though the two share a focus on small scale groups or people. However, genealogy may learn from microhistory's use of clues in reading some texts. What is revealed by studying clues is a form of indirect evidence. A discussion of the Freudian unconscious and its relevance to genealogy helps draw out the usefulness of clues in family history research. The article wraps up with a brief overview of traces in genealogical research.

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“…9 Los testimonios que nos brindan gozan de un valor innegable pues, lamentablemente, mucha de la documentación de la época se ha perdido con el paso de los años, sobreviviendo fundamentalmente la relativa a las grandes problemáticas de la gobernación o a los 5 Andrade, 2011. Son numerosos los debates surgidos sobre el alcance, potencial y diversos aspectos teóricos de esta «microhistoria global», véase, entre otros, De Vries, 2019; Ghobrial, 2014;Levi, 2018;Trivellato, 2011. 6 «Como todos los historiadores, yo estoy ligado a los lugares y a los espacios particulares y mi saber es resultado directo de una formación en la lectura de textos, de archivos y de imágenes […] La historia global no está destinada a sustituir la historia hecha a escala regional, nacional o continental, sino a complementarla […] No es posible escribir una historia global desde ninguna parte». Subrahmanyam, 2014, 62-63. 7 «Hence, bridging the gap between microhistory and global history may not mean moving back and forth between different levels of contextualization, as if reality was a tiered, multi-layered cliff and the historian an adventurous alpinist, but rather unearthing the fossilized remains of the many worlds that lay intermeshed in one single location».…”

Section: Santa Ana: Entre La Microhistoria Y La Globalizaciónunclassified

Anochece en Santa Ana: microhistoria de un barangay filipino y su conexión con el mundo globalizado de la segunda mitad del siglo XVII

Reviriego

2021

Anu. estud. am.

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La noche del 12 de marzo de 1670, un grupo de marineros que se dirigían al galeón de Manila San Diego asaltaron el barangay o poblado filipino de Santa Ana en busca de comida. Este hecho, aunque aislado y a simple vista sin gran transcendencia, nos permite vislumbrar ciertos aspectos de la vida del medio agrícola filipino. A partir de este caso, se aprecia cómo este pequeño poblado no era una pieza aislada del resto de globo, sino que se encontraba interconectado con diversas redes comerciales y culturales, siendo participe de la conocida como «primera globalización».

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Is There a Future for Italian Microhistory in the Age of Global History?

Cited by 116 publications

References 42 publications

A World of Public Debts

A World of Public Debts

Writing That Is Not Written: Clues, the Unconscious, the Indirect, and Traces; What Genealogy Can Learn from Microhistory

Anochece en Santa Ana: microhistoria de un barangay filipino y su conexión con el mundo globalizado de la segunda mitad del siglo XVII

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