On the purpose of “nueva invitación a la microhistoria”

Abstract

This paper presents an invitation of the Mexican micro-historian Luis González y González realizes microhistories and that proposes a critical classification of different tendencies about the approaches of historians. In his book, “Nueva invitación a la microhistoria” (1982), he proposes and justifies the establishment of limits among macrohistory, Bronze history and Antiquity (micro-history). The author insists on this idea in his book Pueblo en Vilo, published in 1995.

This invitation to reconstruct microhistories is vigorous, especially now where a deification of a global view helps to justify his criticism from a local standpoint. The aim of this reflection is to highlight some epistemological and political considerations, which are needed to assure the validity of the invitation.