Braudel

Fernand Braudel (1902–1985) was a French historian and a leading figure of the Annales School. He is best known for advancing the long-term, structural approach to history, emphasizing slow-moving processes and large-scale contexts over individual events or biographies.

Braudel’s central idea, the longue durée, seeks to uncover persistent structures that shape societies over centuries. He argued that geography, environment, demography, economic systems, and social hierarchies interact to condition human life in ways that endure beyond political headlines. This perspective challenged traditional event-centered historiography and encouraged cross-disciplinary methods.

Among his most influential works is The Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, in which he treats the Mediterranean as an integrated historical system rather than a collection of separate polities. He also published The Structures of Everyday Life (Les structures élémentaires de la vie quotidienne), which analyzes how daily habits, material culture, and spatial organization underlie historical change. Braudel contributed to the multi-volume Civilization and Capitalism, 15th–18th Centuries, a comprehensive study of long-term economic and social structures that underpins contemporary interpretations of global economic history.

Academically, Braudel held a prominent position at the Collège de France, where his lectures and writings helped bridge history with sociology, geography, and economics. His methodological emphasis on depth, context, and interconnections influenced generations of historians and contributed to a shift toward integrative, multi-scalar historical analysis.