New Historicism acknowledges that any criticism of a work is influenced by the critic's own background and beliefs. New Historicists examine both the text and their own perspectives. This approach considers elements outside the text, unlike New Criticism which focuses only on analyzing the text itself. New Historicism emerged in response to New Criticism's failure to account for the social and historical context that influenced literary works. It uses techniques from history and anthropology to provide thick descriptions of texts and elucidate them within their broader cultural context.