So far I have been preparing the ground for a broader consideration of the category of experience in historical and cultural analysis. This will involve thinking around some of the problems which are raised by the ways in which the meanings made of any object of study are influenced and coloured by our social and historical experience. But the first question that needs to be addressed is how experience itself may be conceptualised and understood as a constituent in the production of cultural and historical meanings. Experience as an analytical category in cultural studies and social history remains slippery and elusive. It seems to defy any attempt to use it with precision, and always to become stubbornly tangled in wider senses and associations. It is because of this that it generates both fascination and frustration. This chapter will therefore explore the term conceptually in an attempt to clarify and sharpen up its various references and meanings. I shall begin by tracing certain aspects of its historical usages and development.