Braudel, Fernand

(1902-1985)

   historian

   A leading proponent of the Annales school of historiography, Fernand Braudel was born in Lunéville-en-Ornois, Meuse. Educated at the sor-bonne, he was a student of lucien febvre and was a professor at the collège de France (1949). In 1929, with marc bloch, he established the journal Annales d'histoire économique et sociale, and in 1935, accepted a post at the University of Brazil, Sâo Paulo. He also taught in Algeria (1923-33). Later, as a prisoner of war, he developed and wrote many of his theses in prison camps, with limited resources. In La Méditerranée et le Monde méditerranée à l'époque de Philippe II (1949), Braudel, greatly impressed by Febvre's new approach to history, sought to present the concept of a profound unity between the natural and social sciences, and to integrate into his historical research the ideas of geography and economics. The essence of Braudel's works, in accord with the theories of the Annales school, are marked by the importance he gives to the different periods of history, especially those of the longest duration (Écrits sur l'histoire, 1969). He give in them an incisive view of the profound evolution of European economic infrastructures (Civilisation matérielle, économie et capitalisme, XVe-XV IIIe siecle, 1967-79; Histoire économique et social, 1979). In L'Identité de la France, t. I "Espace et Histoire," t. II [2 vols.] "Les Hommes et les Choses," 1986), he connected with the vast synthesis of French history. Braudel was elected to the Académie Française in 1984.