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History from below

Student's Name

Institution

Course Title

Date
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History from below

The concept of History from below refers to a form of social history that focusses on the

stories and experiences of common people rather than leaders. The purpose of history from

below is to eradicate bias and provide a true account of events. By avoiding tailoring of history

to achieve certain political and nationalistic agenda, it gives a more radical, accurate and

inclusive account of events. It is commonly known as people history and can be useful in

informing future political and social possibilities (Sarkar, 2015). This aim of this essay is to

identify the gaps in the discussion of this concept in the peer posts by considering the practioners

and the conservative responses.

There exists a major gap in the first post whereby the majority of the social history

alluded to almost appears as a form of activism. The post is focused on class, gender and race

which may be confused with an activist approach. Additionally, there is no elaboration of the

concept of gender in both posts. Furthermore, the second post does not focus on working class as

its primary subject. Thus it fails in correctly representing their experiences and consciousness.

Additionally, both sources do not employ oral history (Sarkar, 2015) based on the storytelling

techniques of the common people. For instance, both Edward Thompson and Howard Zinn limit

themselves to the marginalized groups only. Pursuing oral history would provide a more

inclusive history which allows for differentiation from activism. In so doing, both posts are

devoid of a key component of history from below-inclusivity.

The second post is based on popular protests and culture without elaborating the social

organization of the common people. A good example is the numerous reference to strict Marxist

class ideologies rather than oral history. Therefore it becomes difficult to correctly identify the

reality upon which the commoners were accustomed to. Developing a distinction between class
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activism and general history coverage becomes even much harder due to the limited number of

sources. Thus the posts miss out on the purpose of being radical and non-biased within the same

vein.

References

Sarkar, S. (2015). Emergence of Social History writing: Approaches and Interpretations. NBU J.

Hist, 8, 1-10, https://ir.nbu.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/3860/1/Karatoya%20vol

%208%20Article%20No%208.pdf