Social history in various forms, history that focuses not on kings and battles but on the common life of people, has been popular for a century and a half. But it’s not a modern development. It has ancient roots.
Van Seters (In Search of History) writes, “for the Egyptians, the Hittites, and the nations of Mesopotamia these historiographic genres did not lead to true history writing. Insofar as the king, his dynasty, or even kingship itself was the focus of such texts, they did not develop into a form of tradition encompassing the people as a whole. To be sure, the king was both public and political, and his deeds were of great significance to the nation. But only when the nation itself took precedence over the king, as happened in Israel, could history writing be achieved.”
If ancient Hebrews thought history was about kings, we wouldn’t have most of Genesis-Judges in our Bibles.
