Intellectual history

Intellectual history is, as it would appear, the history of intellectuals. That is to say, the history of the people who create, discuss, write about and in other ways propagate ideas. It is distinct from (although related to) the history of philosophy and the history of ideas. Its central perspective is that ideas do not change in isolation from the people who create and use them and that we must study the culture, lives and environments of people to understand their ideas.