"In its 'golden age,' it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in history departments in Britain, Canada, France, Germany, and the United States."
This focuses on the social aspects of history and includes the study of social structures, class systems, gender roles, and cultural norms.
Gender roles: The cultural and societal expectations and norms for behavior of the sexes and the assigned cultural and social roles and responsibilities of men and women.
Class structures: The hierarchical division of society based on income, occupation, and education, resulting in the unequal distribution of power and resources.
Marriage and family structures: The norms and practices surrounding marriage, divorce, and child-rearing in a society.
Work and labor practices: The ways in which societies organize and value different types of labor, including agricultural, industrial, and service labor.
Race and ethnicity: The social and cultural categories and practices that are used to categorize and classify people based on physical, cultural, and geographic differences.
Religion and belief systems: The cultural, social, and political influences exerted by religious institutions, beliefs, and practices within a society.
Politics and governance: The structures, institutions, and practices of government, including the distribution of power, representation, and decision-making processes.
Education: The methods, institutions, and values associated with formal and informal education, including the role of education in shaping and perpetuating social norms and values.
Sexuality and sexual norms: The social and cultural practices and values related to sex, gender, and sexual orientation within a society.
Urbanization and migration: The movement of people into and out of cities, and the ways in which this process shapes and is shaped by social, political, economic, and cultural factors.
"In the two decades from 1975 to 1995, the proportion of professors of history in American universities identifying with social history rose from 31% to 41%."
"While the proportion of political historians fell from 40% to 30%."
"History departments in Britain, Canada, France, Germany, and the United States."
"Of the 3410 faculty members reporting, 878 (26%) identified themselves with social history."
"Political history came next with 841 (25%)."
"'Documenting large structural changes; reconstructing the experiences of ordinary people in the course of those changes; and connecting the two'."
"Economists have used cliometrics with economic and mathematical models as a quantitative means to study social history."