Social History : Problems, Strategies and Methods

Drawing examples from some of the classic works in the discipline, Miles Fairburn examines the nature, varieties, schools and evolution of social history.
Intended for advanced students and practising social historians who see social history as a problem-solving discipline, the methodological problems examined include the absence of social categories, fragmenting evidence, the appraisal of rival explanations, the use of socially constructed evidence to substantiate claims about realities, how to avoid presentism and when its practice is justifiable, how to distinguish important causes and how to tell similarities from differences.

MILES FAIRBURN is a practising social historian who also teaches advanced courses on historiography and historical method. He is the author of two major books on the social history of New Zealand and presently occupies the Chair in History at Canterbury University, Christchurch, New Zealand.