I'm a master's student in the beginning stages of my thesis. I study the 19th century American South, particularly West and Central Alabama. I plan to take a microhistorical approach. I've read The Cheese and the Worms by Carlo Ginzburg, and am about to start The Return of Martin Guerre by Natalie Zemon Davis. Are there any other seminal works you would recommend? I'd especially like to read an American microhistory, though I know the format wasn't used as widely by Americanists.
I'm a grad student too! For my pro-sem class we read a few microhistories (including the Cheese and the Worms). I would highly recommend reading The Murder of Hellen Jewett By Patricia Cohen. It is a nineteenth century American micro-history on the murder of a New York prostitute.
Carnival of Fury by William Hair is another microhistory about Robert Charles and the New Orleans Race Riot of 1900. I read this a few years ago, but I remember really enjoying it. Enjoy!
For a microhistorical approach in a slightly earlier period of American history: Jon Sensbach, Rebecca's Revival