Braudel, Fernand

Born in the family of a math teacher in the small village of Lumeville-en-Ornois near the German border in Lorraine . Peasant childhood played a role in shaping his worldview ^[1] . In 1909 he entered elementary school in the Paris suburb of Meriel, where he studied with the future actor Jean Gabin , and then - at the Lyceum of Voltaire in Paris.

Higher education in the Sorbonne at the Faculty of Humanities . “Like all left-wing students of that time” ^[1] , he was attracted to the Great French Revolution , and he chose revolutionary events in the town of Bar-le-Duc, closest to his native village, as the topic of his thesis. He spent the next decade as a professor of history at a college in Algeria , with a break in military service from 1925-1926. The years in Algeria were of great importance for determining his work ^[1] . In 1928, he published his first article.

In 1932, he returned to Paris to teach at the Lyceum of Condorcet , and then at the Lyceum of Henry IV . At this time, he met his colleague Lucien Fevre . Already in 1935, he and the anthropologist Claude Levy-Strauss were invited to teach at the newly created University of São Paulo in Brazil, and Braudel spent three years there.

At the beginning of World War II , as a reserve lieutenant, he was mobilized and went to the front in the artillery unit. Having taken part in the battles, already after the signing of the armistice in the summer of 1940, he was captured together with the remnants of his military unit, where he spent almost five years - first in the prison camp for officers in Mainz , and since 1942 - in the special regime camp in Lübeck .

In 1947 he defended his thesis. Since 1948, Braudel led the French Center for Historical Studies. ^{[ specify ]} . In 1949 he became professor at the College de France , occupying the department of modern civilization, and also headed the jury for the defense of historical dissertations. In 1956-1972 he headed the VIth section ("Economic and Social Sciences") at the Practical School of Higher Studies . After the death of L. Febvre in 1956, he also served as editor in the journal Annales, Economies, Sociétés, Civilisations (in fact, until 1970). Corresponding Member of the British Academy (1962). Honorary Doctor of the Universities of Brussels , Oxford , Geneva , Cambridge , London , Chicago , etc.

In 1949, his book The Mediterranean Sea and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II was published, which provoked mixed responses among fellow historians. This serious work demonstrates the author’s attitude to geography, social and economic history of the region as important components in historical analysis, thus diminishing the role of events and personalities. The historian was greatly influenced by Lucien Fevre, one of the immediate founders of the Annals school.

Braudel’s most famous work is considered to be his three-volume “Material Civilization, Economics and Capitalism , XV-XVIII Centuries”, published in 1979, dedicated to the transition from feudalism to capitalism. This is a large-scale study of the pre-industrial world, showing in great detail how the economies of European (and not only) countries functioned in a given historical period. It describes trade development and money circulation in particular, and much attention is also paid to the influence of the geographical environment on social processes.

Braudel is a prominent advocate and advocate for an interdisciplinary approach.

As Yu. N. Afanasyev writes, “The Braudelian vision of history was determined primarily by the desire to understand human accomplishments and make them understandable to others” ^[1] . Braudel conceptualized the category of historical time , which he regarded as internally heterogeneous, dividing “historical time” into the following levels:

• firstly, a short time change of events, mainly political;
• secondly, the average duration or cyclic time , which describes the cycles of ups and downs of significant social and cultural processes: economic, migration, demographic, etc.
• thirdly, a long duration ( fr. longue durée ), characterizing the large structures of the joint existence of people who support the integrity of large sociocultural entities (civilizations).

A short time refers to events in people's daily lives. Vivid examples are, for example, newspaper chronicles describing fires, disasters, crimes, grain prices, etc. Although such phenomena are of significance to the historian, historical studies are not limited to them. History is not just a totality of events; a wave-like (market) methodology is used for analysis, which allows us to study time longue durée . The very concept of longue durée distinguishes history from other humanities, as it describes the unity, continuity, integrity of the history of mankind, taking into account the different directions of change. The dynamics of human life in full can be seen if we consider it through aspects within the “slow” history.

• 1949 - La Méditerranée et le Monde Méditerranéen a l'époque de Philippe II (3 volumes, 1 ed.; 2 ed. 1966 ; Mediterranean Sea and the Mediterranean world in the era of Philip II):

* La part du milieu (Part 1. The role of the environment). - ISBN 2-253-06168-9 .

* Destins collectifs et mouvements d'ensemble (part 2. Collective fates and universal shifts). - ISBN 2-253-06169-7 .

* Les événements, la politique et les hommes (part 3. Events. Politics. People). - ISBN 2-253-06170-0 .

Russian per. : per. with fr. M.A. Yusima. - M .: Languages ​​of Slavic culture . - Part 1, 2002.496 s. - Part 2, 2003. 808 p. - Part 3, 2004.640 s.

• 1969 - Ecrits sur l'Histoire , vol. 1. - ISBN 2-08-081023-5 .
• 1979 - Civilization matérielle, économie et capitalisme, XV ^e -XVIII ^e siècle (Material civilization, economics and capitalism, XV — XVIII centuries):

* Les structures du quotidien (v. 1. Structures of everyday life: possible and impossible). - ISBN 2-253-06455-6 .

* Les jeux de l'échange (t. 2. Exchange games). - ISBN 2-253-06456-4 .

* Le temps du monde (t. 3. Peace time). - ISBN 2-253-06457-2 .

Russian per. : per. with fr. L. E. Kubbel :

- 1st ed. - M .: Progress . - T. 1, 1986. 624 p. - T. 2, 1988.632 s. - T. 3, 1992.679 s.

- 2nd ed., Entry. Art. and ed. Yu. N. Afanasyev : in 3 vols. - M .: The whole world - T. 1, 2006.592 s. ISBN 5-7777-0345-3 ^[2] - Vol. 2, 2006.672 s. ISBN 5-7777-0358-5 - Vol . 3, 2007. 752 s. ISBN 978-5-7777-0359-0 .

• 1985 - La Dynamique du Capitalisme . - ISBN 2-08-081192-4 .

Russian per. : The Dynamics of Capitalism. - Smolensk: Polygram, 1993 .-- 123 p. - ISBN 5-87264-010-2 .

• 1986 - L'identité de la France (3 volumes).

Russian per. : What is France? (in 2 books). - M.: Publishing House. Sabashnikovs. -

Prince 1. Space and history. - 1994 .-- 406 p. - ISBN 5-8242-0016-5 .

Prince 2. People and things. Part 1. The population and its fluctuations over the centuries. - 1995 .-- 244 p. - ISBN 5-8242-0017-3 .

Prince 2. People and things. Part 2. "Peasant economy" until the beginning of the XX century. - 1997 .-- 512 s. - ISBN 5-8242-0018-1 .

• 1990 - Ecrits sur l'Histoire , vol. 2. - ISBN 2-08-081304-8 .
• 1993 - Grammaire des civilizations . - ISBN 2-08-081285-8 .

Russian per. : Grammar of civilizations. - M.: The whole world , 2008 .-- 552 p. - ISBN 978-5-7777-0403-0 .

• 1998 - Les mémoires de la Méditerranée .

• Smirnov V.P. Fernand Braudel: life and works // French Yearbook 2002. - M., 2002.
• Biography of F. Braudel
• Proceedings of F. Braudel at the Humer Library
• Material civilization, economics and capitalism, XV — XVIII centuries. - 2006
• "The Mediterranean Sea and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II" in Russian translation
• History and social sciences. Historical duration (inaccessible link)
• The dynamics of capitalism