Annales School

Category: Theoretical approaches

The Annales school approach was named after the journal Annales d’histoire économique et sociale, now called Annales: Histoire, Sciences Sociales, which was created by French historians Marc Bloch and Lucien Febvre in 1929. This journal, as well as the historiographical current named after him, promoted a view of history that went beyond the study of political events and paid attention to many aspects of social life. On the other hand, the focus was on the history of "long duration", that is, on long-term processes. The group of interdisciplinary historians that was associated with this journal, and their theoretical and epistemological approach, came to be known as the Annales School. Although they differed in their methods in topics, their shared approach focused more on social, cultural, and economic history and development, instead of focusing on political history, which was a more traditional focus of historical science in the 19th and at the start of the 20th century.

Bloch, as well as other members of the Annales School, promoted a view of history that went beyond the study of political events and paid attention to many aspects of social life. On the other hand, they shifted their focus from studying individual events to the history of "long duration", that is, on long-term processes and slowly developing social changes. In addition to, and complementary to, the focus on the history of long duration, Bloch also employed the perspective he called total history (histoire total). Total history represents an approach to history that focuses on the mentalities (mentalities) of people, that is, their attitudes, ideas, and beliefs.

in the book The Historian’s Craft (1953), Bloch presents history as ‘the science of men in time’, an interdisciplinary field that is part science, part craft, and part art. All of history should be seen as one single entity and can't be compartmentalized. All historical periods and all aspects of social life are interrelated and connected. Focus should be on people's beliefs and customs, and not on individual political events. Historians should: use all types of documents available to them (texts, maps, place names, folklore, aerial photographs, and tools); interrogate that evidence; interpret the evidence in the context of the time and the place they belong to; and refrain from passing moral judgments according to personal moral code.

Bloch compared history with natural sciences and concluded that natural scientists deal with phenomena that are in their consciousness, while historians deal with psychosocial phenomena that exist, not only in the minds of historians but also in the consciousness of people who lived throughout history. This difference between history and natural sciences often leads to historians having numerous different interpretations of historical events. Despite this, Bloch believed that one should and could strive for scientific validity. One of the methods that historians can apply to ensure validity is the comparative method. He stressed that there are two ways this method can be used. Searching for universal phenomena that exist in all times and places is the first way. The second way is to compare neighboring societies or societies that existed in the same historical period, and this was Bloch's preferred way for applying the comparative method, as it brings more precise results.

Fernand Braudel continued this intellectual tradition and theoretically expanded and consolidated it. Braudel's approach was based on the four most important principles. The first concerns the unit of analysis and refers to the necessity of studying what Braudel called the "world economy" (économie monde). The second principle is that multiple social "temporalities" should be studied and especially those of long duration. The third principle refers to the need for an interdisciplinary approach in the social sciences, i.e., removing the boundaries between history and sociology, geography, political science, and economics. The fourth principle refers to the introduction of the distinction between the market and capitalism. Braudel's concept "world economy" does not mean the economy of the entire planet, but refers to the international economic system that has its own economic structure, including the division of labor.

This concept, in Braudel's great study The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, 2 vol. (1972, in French 1949), is used to analyze the economic system of the Mediterranean states in the 16th century. In the same book, Braudel introduces the notion of multiple social temporalities. According to the author, there are three types of temporality: "structure" (which lasts the longest), "cycle" (which is of medium duration), and "events" (shortest duration). The study of structures is paramount in history. Although the structures are quite stable and long-lasting, they go through different economic and demographic cycles, so it is important to study them in order to better understand specific events. The emphasis on structures and cycles made Braudel's approach more open to other social disciplines, because, without other sciences, it is very difficult to understand structures. To strengthen the interdisciplinary approach in the social sciences, Braudel founded the VIe Section for Social and Economic Sciences at the École pratique des hautes études, as well as the independent research institute Fondation Maison des sciences de l'homme (FMSH), of which he has been the director since 1970 until his death.

In his book Civilization and Capitalism, 3 vol. (1992, in French 1967-1979), Braudel analyzes the relationship between capitalism and the market. In this book, he presents three levels of social life. On the first level, everyday life of individuals happens, on the second level are the markets that are always present, and on the third level is capitalism, which, in his opinion, is not inevitable. For Braudel, capitalism functions as an anti-market because it monopolizes economic life in order to maximize profits and distorts the market to suit capitalism. In this way, capitalism dominates and threatens the market and everyday life. Capitalist aspirations to control the market and market resistance to such tendencies have shaped the history of the new century. Due to the striving for an interdisciplinary focus on social and economic history, long-term processes, as well as the international economy, Braudel is considered by many to be the intellectual forerunner of the world system theory of Immanuel Wallerstein.

Other relevant authors: Philippe Ariès, Roger Chartier, Pierre Chaunu, Georges Duby, Lucien Febvre, Ernest Labrousse, Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Jacques Marc Le Goff, Pierre Goubert, Georges Lefebvre, Robert Mandrou, Jacques Revel, Paul Veyne, and Pierre Vilar.

References:

Bloch, Marc. Feudal Society, 2 vols. (1961);

- The Royal Touch (1973);

Braudel. The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, 2 vol. (1972, in French 1949);

- On History (1980, In French 1969);

- The Identity of France, 2 vol. (1988–1990, In French 1986);

- Civilization and Capitalism, 3 vol. (1992, in French 1967-1979),

- Memory of the Mediterranean (2001, in French 1998).

Burke, Peter. The French Historical Revolution: The Annales School, 1929–1989 (1990);

Burke, P. “The Annales, Braudel and Historical Sociology”. In: Delanty, G. & Isin, E. (eds.) Handbook for Historical Sociology (2003);

Carrard, P. Poetics of the New History: French Historical Discourse from Braudel to Chartier (1992);

Clark, Stuart, ed. The Annales School, 4 vols. (1999);