What is economic & social history?

Economic and social history has been described as 'History with a Difference'. Often students have studied economic and social history at school but are unaware that they can study it as a separate subject at university. Economic and social history is the study of economies and societies in the past. It is concerned with:

• how economies and societies develop
• why that development differs between countries and between time periods
• how individuals, households, and governments contribute to these changes
• how these changes affect people and how and why their experiences have changed over time

The patterns of change we study are not only relevant to the past but continue to shape the present, so our students understand the contemporary world and are prepared for the future.

Economic and social history recognizes the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to the past and calls upon concepts and research methods employed in other social sciences such as economics, cultural and social anthropology, politics, geography, and psychology.