Social History

How have family structures—such as extended families, nuclear families, or communal living—varied across time and place? What can records of marriage, birth, and death tell us about social norms and economic pressures? How have expectations about childhood, parenthood, and old age changed over different historical periods? In what ways do private spaces like homes reflect broader social hierarchies and cultural values? Can you think of a social change that has significantly altered family life in the last century?

How have historians studied the lives of peasants, workers, and the poor, who often left few written records? What strategies have people used to cope with poverty, debt, or unstable work across different eras? How do changes in taxation, welfare, and charity reflect shifting ideas about responsibility and deservingness? What can urban neighborhoods, slums, and rural villages reveal about the geography of inequality? Can you think of a policy or economic shift that dramatically changed class relations in a particular society?

How have social expectations about masculinity, femininity, and gender roles varied across cultures and time periods? What sources do historians use to study the history of sexuality and intimate relationships? How have legal systems regulated marriage, reproduction, and sexual behavior, and whose interests did those laws serve? What impact have feminist and queer movements had on how historians write about the past? Can you think of a historical figure whose life challenges rigid categories of gender or sexuality?

How have ideas of race and ethnicity been constructed, justified, and challenged in different societies? What is the historical relationship between racial thinking and systems like slavery, segregation, or apartheid? How have marginalized racial and ethnic groups preserved culture and resisted oppression over time? What do everyday interactions—like housing, schooling, and policing—reveal about racial hierarchies in practice? Can you think of a historical moment when racial categories themselves were redefined or contested?

How have churches, mosques, temples, and other religious institutions shaped community life and social services? What role has religion played in both justifying existing hierarchies and inspiring movements for justice? How have religious revivals or reform movements changed everyday practices and moral expectations? In what ways do religious and secular moral systems overlap or conflict in different historical settings? Can you think of a historical moment when religious identity became a key dividing line in society?

How have forms of leisure—festivals, sports, theater, radio, film, social media—reflected broader social changes? What can the history of games, music, and entertainment tell us about class, gender, and generational differences? How have authorities tried to regulate or moralize popular culture, and with what results? What does the spread of global popular culture mean for local traditions and identities? Can you think of a popular cultural phenomenon that historians in the future might study to understand our time?