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The term history of mentalities is a calque on the French histoire des mentalités (which might also be translated as 'history of attitudes', 'history of world-views'), a historical movement whose origins are associated with the Annales School.

The history of mentalities focuses not on the wars and politics which have been the subject matter of most European history-writing since ancient times, but on the wider world-views of past cultural and social groups. The term might also be seen as an equivalent to, or a hyponym of, cultural history.

References

• Peter Burke, 'Strengths and Weaknesses in the History of Mentalities'. in Varieties of Cultural History (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1997), pp. 162–82; revised from original publication in History of European Ideas, 7 (1986), 439-51.

• Philippe Poirrier, Les enjeux de l'histoire culturelle (Paris, Seuil, 2004).