The International Review of Social History has planned for its 2001 Supplement a special issue on petitions as a source in social history. Petitions have been used throughout history to voice demands, including those of working class and middle class citizens. The Review invites authors to submit proposals for articles that use petitions as source for social history.
Petitions are demands for a favour or for the redressment of an injustice.
These data make petitions a powerful historical source. As the distribution of justice and largesse are important parts of ruling, rulers can hardly deny individual subjects the right to approach them to implore them to exercise justice. Where petitions became an accepted tradition, they could evolve into an institution which not only catered for the wishes of individuals, but also was used to elicit legislation. The right to petition could easily develop into a crystallisation point for other popular rights. This happened in western countries from the seventeenth century.