Braudel, Fernand (1902–1985)

Fernand Braudel was a leader of the group of French historians associated with the journal Annales, who took a long view of history (longue durée) in which the emphasis was on historical structures rather than [Page 118]events. Instead of the traditional approach to history that focused on the sequence of political events surrounding rulers of nations—their wars, laws, alliances, and succession—the Annales historians tried to understand the gradual changes in the everyday lives of people throughout the world. Braudel was distinctive in charting the economic life of people rather than of nation-states; much of his writing focused on the everyday consumption of goods and on the practices of local production rather than on monetary or mercantile systems.

After an early career teaching in Algeria and Brazil, ...