The study of history involves the use of a wide array of sources and methodologies to effect an imaginative reconstruction of the past. Once preoccupied with politics and ideas, historians have broadened the scope of their inquiry to consider economic and social history, as well as the history of culture and collective mentalities. Their efforts of historical reconstruction are useful for the knowledge they provide concerning the origin and nature of contemporary institutions and societies, in addition to the insights they provide into the range of human experience and behavior.