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history (conjecture). They wished to establish close collaboration
with other social sciences, such as human geography, economics,
Durkheimian sociology, demography, and ethnography. They may
not have seen history as the queen of the social sciences, but they
certainly believed that a history revitalized by contact with other
social sciences would soon occupy a central position on the intellec–
tual firmament.
Bloch, whose
Feudal Society,
published before the war, is still
considered the standard work, emphasized the affinities of history
with human geography and economics. His senior colleague at Stras–
bourg, Lucien Febvre, was more: particularly interested in the his–
torical study of "mentalities," that is, shared mental perspectives.
Bloch , even though he could have left France, remained there and
became an active member of the Resistance movement. He was
killed by the Nazis shortly before the liberation. Febvre survived and
became one of the major luminaries of French history after the war.
After Febvre's death in 1956, the author of the present volume,
Fernand Braudel, became the leading spirit in the
Annales
school.
Though he has stressed that he considers himself the successor of
both leading
Annales
historians, his work is in many ways closer to
Bloch's approach than to that of Febvre. While the latter contributed
in a major way to intellectual history and the study of ideas ,
(vide
his
magisterial books on Rabelais and Luther), Bloch continued through–
out his work to concentrate attention on enonomic and geographical
factors. The work of Braudel stands mostly under his shadow.
Braudel shows only a minimal interest in currents of ideas. He largely
focuses on economic and geographical factors which, so he alleged,
fashion the course of history, be it in the medium run or in the long
term.
Born in 1902, Braudel still dominates the contemporary
historical establishment. His work,
The Mediterranean and the Mediter–
ranean World in the Age oj Philip II,
is generally seen by historians as a
masterpiece.
It
consists largely of a detailed discussion of the social
environment in the Mediterranean world which shaped the various
civilizations that intersected in that geographical region . The book
also provides fascinating accounts of -the many ways in which the
geographical environment favored or blocked the economic infra–
structure of the region, and it deals with events such as the crucial
navy battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571, which spelled the end of
the Turkish ascendancy in the Mediterranean and assured the domi–
nance of the Spaniards and their Italian allies for a long period .
