History – PERSIA: Historical Subfields

Sub-fields of History

The acronym PERSIA has several uses for history students. Its letters represent some of the major historical sub-fields: Politics, Economics, Religion, Social, Individuals or Institutions, and Art. In history, writers take a stance, they make an argument about why something happened. The why can generally explained by the categories in PERSIA. An argument in history can generally be grouped into categories according to the acronym/subfields. When assessing a source’s argument or attempting to create your own argument, think about which category or categories may apply. For example, religion and politics were both extremely important to Medieval European history, but one may be more important than the other in certain circumstances.

• P – Politics – Political history emphasizes the role of government as a central actor to historical events. Politics is one of the largest categories in history. Politics can happen domestically or internationally. Many different actors can contribute to politics.
• E – Economics – Economic history evaluates the role of wealth and power in history. Who owns land and who controls the wealth are important considerations when evaluating historical circumstances. Economics is often intricately tied into religion and politics. This is another of the largest sub-fields.
• R – Religion – The next most major category is religion. Religion has been a major driver of historical change. This category can also overlap with politics and economics. Religion is often used as justification for political actions. Religion is often a daily activity for people in society.
• S – Social – Social history explores the importance of people. In democratic societies, communities of people shape their country. In repressive societies, people rise up in revolution. The beliefs and actions of large communities are influential in shaping change.
• I – Individuals or Institutions – Individual personalities shape how historical actors approached their world-view. Unique people such as Teddy Roosevelt impacted history. Single Institutions like large corporations can impact events. McDonalds and Coke are two examples. Single entities influence history in many ways.
• A – Art – In many cases, art is a reflection of the historical context in which it was produced. Historians often evaluate novels and pieces of art in order to understand how people were interpreting the political, social, and economic circumstances of the time. Cultural history often explores art.
• G – Geography – Geographical history looks at how the physical environment informed the events or topic in question. Geographical studies may include discussions of how an historical group’s geographical knowledge influenced that group’s perspectives on their broader world, a key factor in the movement from archaic societies to ones that we consider to be closer to modernity. The evidence used in these studies may be historical maps or accounts of travels.
• T – Technology – The development of technologies drives changes more directly than most other proximal causes, and every technology has a complicated past and origin. Use of technologies distinguishes humans from other species, and relative strengths of technologies have driven the course of all of history. Researching how a specific society created, used, discussed, or destroyed technologies informs our understanding of that culture’s identity.

***Disclaimer***

There are many more sub-fields that historians explore. Diplomatic history explores the relationship between states in international politics. Military history explores wars and battles, evaluating what strategies were used by whom. Remember that in almost every historical event, many of these categories influences events. Which one or ones influenced it most?