the memory of history has been reconstructed by the elite, because the overwhelming majority of ordinary people rarely leave sufficient primary documents; they do not have others recording their lives in real time."
It is this very observation that compelled me to become a historian 30 years ago and devote 40% of my life to unearthing and editing documents that record the thoughts and actions of people who otherwise had no voice.
https://www.droz.org/world/en/571-9782600001670.htmlI told my students at the course that I recently taught that I had little interest anymore in reading history books, but I can read these types of documents all day long. I have them decipher manuscript texts that include things like
- a religious discussion in an inn where people start accusing each other of being damned
- a brawl between a nobleman and a citizen of Geneva because the nobleman mistreats a woman, the other man comes to her defense and has the gall to tell the nobleman, who claims that his "race" is more noble than any in the region, that no "race" is more noble than a citizen of Geneva.
- a sick woman who gets a man she knows to attempt a cure, which involves dancing naked before the city gates in the pre-dawn of the Feast of Saint John (aka Midsummer)
- a woman who has a vision of Satan while sitting in church
- a wealthy woman who leaves a huge sum in her will to her servant because the servant did not abandon her in her sickness and widowhood.
- a man who dislikes the Reformation and argues with the pastors (and also has a habit of falling asleep in church, which is less surprising than the man who is reprimanded for pissing in the corner of the church).
And so forth. I could go on... but you get the idea.
