Focusing on ‘people's history’ challenges the assumption that poor people are passive, followers, or apolitical, by identifying ways in which poor people are makers of their own histories. By adapting a ‘people's history’ approach to the geographical study of one village in West Bengal, and concentrating particularly on survival strategies used by poorest women and children, this article shows that the rural poorest are active in an informal economy through which they operate much of their business, and that they have clear views on the characteristics of rich people. Survival strategies considered include the use of common property resources; changes in consumption patterns; share‐rearing of livestock; and mutual support networks. Each is put in the context of a wider literature, and policy implications evaluated to determine the possibility of external support for such indigenous coping mechanisms.