This open access book shows how the history of experience can be studied. Starting with the question of how past experiences can be traced, the volume explores how historical sources—from egodocuments to statistics and fiction—can reveal past realities in new ways. Accessible yet methodologically advanced, it offers historians and students alike a fresh toolkit for exploring human experience and expanding their research methods.

Reetta Eiranen is a Researcher at the Research Council of Finland's Centre of Excellence in Nationalism Research in the Humanities (NARS) at the Finnish Literature Society.

Riikka Miettinen is Associate Professor of Social History at Tampere University, Finland and works as a Researcher funded by the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland.

Raisa Maria Toivo is Professor of History at Tampere University, Finland.

This volume is part of the work conducted at the Research Council of Finland’s Centre of Excellence in the History of Experience at Tampere University (2018-2025).