Braudel, Fernand

Braudel, Fernand,

1902–85, French historian. He studied under Lucien Febvre and was a founder of the Annales school of historiography. As a German prisoner-of-war during World War II, he wrote his monumental The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II (1949). After the war, he was professor at the Collège de France in Paris, (1949–72), editor of the journal Annales, a founder (1963) of the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, and president of the VIth Section of the École des Hautes Études (1952–56).

Braudel, Fernand

 

Born Aug. 24, 1902, in Lunéville, Meuse Department. French historian.

Braudel became director of the French Center for Historical Studies in 1948, professor at the Collège de France in 1949, and head of the Sixth Section (Economic and Social Sciences) at the Practical School of Higher Studies (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes) in 1956. Braudel is editor of the journal Annales: Economies, Sociétés, Civilisations, which is very influential among Western European historians. His principal works are on the social and economic history of Western Europe in the 16th through the 18th century. The development of trade and monetary circulation are described in these books in particular detail. Braudel’s works also pay a great deal of attention to the influence of the geographical environment on social processes.

WORKS

La Méditerranée et le monde méditerranéen à l’époque de Philippe II, vols. 1-2, 2nd ed. Paris, 1967.
Civilisation matérielle et capitalisme: XV-XVIII siècles. Paris, 1967.
Ecrits sur l’histoire. Paris, 1969.