AnnalesSchule

The Annales School, or École des Annales, is a historiographical movement that emerged in 20th‑century France. It began with the reformulation of historical writing around a broader set of questions than traditional political or military narrative, emphasizing social, economic, geographical, and cultural factors. Its origins are tied to the journal Annales d’histoire économique et sociale, founded in 1929 by Marc Bloch and Lucien Febvre, who sought a history “from below” and across long spans of time.

Core concepts include la longue durée, or long-term structural history, which stresses enduring factors such as geography, climate, demography, and economic patterns over centuries. The school also foregrounded histoire des mentalités (history of attitudes and beliefs), everyday life, and the collective experiences of ordinary people. Methodologically, it promotes interdisciplinarity, drawing on geography, sociology, anthropology, and statistics, and it increasingly values archival sources beyond elite political records. Microhistory, exemplified by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie’s Montaillou, became a notable offshoot within its framework.

Fernand Braudel’s contributions crystallized the movement’s program. His La Méditerranée et le Monde Méditerranéen à l'époque de Philippe II (1949) articulated a layered approach to time: the longue durée (geography, environment, long-term structures), the moyen temps (social and economic processes over decades or centuries), and the événementiel (short-term events). This framework helped recalibrate how historians study economies, cultures, and societies.

The Annales School profoundly influenced French and international historiography, shifting attention toward cumulative processes, regional and global contexts, and the study of everyday life. It has faced criticisms for potentially downplaying individual agency and political history, but its emphasis on structure and interdisciplinarity remains influential in modern historical practice.