Monsters, Murder and Mayhem in Microhistorical Analysis

Professor Jay Smith, Department of History, UNC-Chapel Hill, teaches a first-year seminar that explores the distinctive features of microhistorical approaches to the past and the attractions of microhistory for the practicing historian. His students read a rich sampling of recent work and try their hand at writing their own microhistories.

Join us for a discussion of why undergraduates see microhistories as an intriguing way to understand historical problems. Lunch will be served.

Jay M. Smith is a specialist of early-modern France. Smith has written about the development of royal absolutism, the emergence of patriotic habits of thought under the old regime, the origins of the French Revolution, the history of the nobility, and the fascinating legend surrounding the Beast of the Gévaudan.