What is most obvious is easily forgotten. Every science has an object. However, the object of sociology is not an object. It is a person. For this reason no meaningful social research is possible or even conceivable unless it is enacted as a personal interaction which presupposes a trusting relationship between researcher and researched. From this point of view, an élite approach as far as history is concerned, is seriously misleading. History as «historia rerum gestarum» is not sufficient. It overlooks the basic human experiences, the «Lebenswelt». History cannot be confined to great leaders and formal institutions. The basic raw material of social research is the everyday life, that is the «history of the longue dureée», as Fernand Braudel would have it. We are moving from the «histoire-bataille» to the «histoire-homme».