The office of the historian and the new ways of making history: from theory to practices

Abstract

The following article tries to specify some methodological, conceptual and thematic aspects that delineated the development of the investigation and the historical science from the second half of the XXth century, epoch in which it became aware of the need to understand from the social sciences all the areas of human activity and to overcome the barriers traced by traditional political history. This movement of renewal materialized in the historiographical current known as the social history, a focus that used the new forms, objects of study, social theories and sources of information, rethinking the way in which the past is investigated, considering the study of other social actors and the different phenomena that involve life in community. In the final part of the article, three investigations are outlined that illustrate the interest of historians for the »other« topics, which, like the disease or female stereotypes, called attention to social history.