Social History Present and Future

This article reviews the reasons for a status report on social history, including an apparent pause in the "cultural turn" and an imminent shift in scholarly leadership. It reviews the current state of some of the classical issues in social history, such as the relationship to political history, periodization and the role in teaching and public presentation. Continued expansion of the topical range of social history includes growing collaboration with focused social science inquiry, in areas like crime or drinking, as the excitement of the field persists. Sociohistorical work in various areas of the world provides a springboard for new comparative and regional analysis, one of the clear challenges for the future.