Big Little Lives: Recovering the Histories of Everyone Else

In the 21st century, we no longer see history as the ‘great deeds of great men’ but seek to understand the stories of the marginalised or ‘silent majority’. Yet how do we recover and tell these stories when the archival material is so limited?

Historian and award-winning author Hallie Rubenhold discusses how to restore the stories of ordinary people by using a variety of sources in her work, e.g. censuses, records of workhouses, the army, charities and parishes, contemporary newspapers and art.