Stories from Below
What are "Stories from Below"?
“Stories from below” are accounts of history, society, or current events told from the perspective of ordinary people—especially those whose experiences are often excluded from official narratives.
Here are links to sources of good stories from below by category.
Labor and economic life
Factory workers and industrialization
Farmworkers and migrant labor
Domestic workers and caregivers
Labor unions and grassroots organizing
Child labor
Informal and gig-economy workers
Unemployment during economic crises
Workplace disasters told by survivors
Race, migration, and identity
Enslaved people’s personal narratives
Everyday life under segregation
Indigenous oral histories
Immigrant and refugee experiences
Border communities
Japanese American Incarceration
Disability history
LGBTQ+ community histories
War, conflict, and displacement
Soldiers’ letters and diaries
Civilian life during wartime
Conscientious objectors
War widows and military families
Refugees and displaced communities
Resistance movements
Survivors of political repression
Rebuilding communities after conflict
Community and everyday life
Neighborhood oral histories
Family traditions and memories
Public housing communities
Rural and small-town life
Homelessness and housing insecurity
Community responses to disasters
Local mutual-aid networks
Changes caused by gentrification
Environment and environmental justice
Communities affected by pollution
Indigenous resistance to resource extraction
Farmworker exposure to pesticides
Neighborhood campaigns for clean air and water
People displaced by dams or conservation projects
Fishing communities facing ecological decline
Climate migration
Community-led conservation
Politics and social movements
Rank-and-file civil-rights activists
Women in grassroots political movements
Tenant organizing
Student protest movements
Antiwar activism
Prisoner organizing and testimony
Community journalism
Mutual aid as political action
Institutions seen from below
Students’ experiences in public schools
Patients’ experiences of healthcare
Children in orphanages and institutions
Incarcerated people’s narratives
Residents of nursing homes
Low-ranking military personnel
Welfare recipients and public assistance
Citizens navigating courts and bureaucracy
Methods and source materials
Oral history
Diaries and personal letters
Family photographs
Folk songs and storytelling
Community newspapers
Testimony and eyewitness accounts
Material culture and everyday objects
Recovering overlooked lives from public records
