Chapter 32 Michelle Perrot

Michelle Perrot not only made great strides in one area of study, she made it in three distinct fields of study: labor history, history of prisons, and women's history. She studied under Ernest Labrousse, a leading economy historian at the time. Her first major work was Les Ouvriers en greve, which described in detail every strike in France from 1871 to 1890. She went to archives in every part of France to collect data. She continued to write about labor history and is considered one of the worlds foremost historians on the subject. She later wrote about prisons and her work The Impossible Prison looked at the relationship between criminals, poverty, and revolution. While teaching, she offered courses in women's history and she later wrote about the topic. 

Is it better for historians to stick to one subject or be well versed in other, more complex topics and areas?