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.