From Library Journal
The late historian Braudel ( The Perspective of the World, LJ 10/15/84) was a leader of the French "Annales" school of historiography, which emphasizes a multidisciplinary approach to history while deemphasizing the study of individual personalities and events. This work was written in 1962 to be used as a text in the French secondary school system. It was ostensibly rejected as being too difficult for students, but the real reason may have been that it lacked a Western bias; non-Western and Western civilizations are given equal emphasis. Though it is not error-free--witness the statement that has Ptolemy ruling Macedonia rather than Egypt--this work is a broad survey that attempts to understand the character and continuity of civilizations on a global scale. It can be seen as a precursor to the multicultural approach to studies that is in vogue today. Highly recommended.
- Robert J. Andrews, Duluth P. L. , Minn.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Robert J. Andrews, Duluth P. L. , Minn.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Booklist
A leader of the Annales school, which reacted against the prominence of politics and personalities in historiography, Braudel wrote based on la longue dur{‚}ee, emphasizing the material basis of daily life--the routine workings of commerce as it changes over the long term. This outlook has gradually permeated the profession, and, as so often happens when a good idea proves unstoppable, its proponent takes a turn at textbook writing. This is the late Braudel's 1962 lesson for French university students on the origin of European, Islamic, Indian, Asian, and New World civilizations. As a text it wasn't widely adopted, perhaps because France was then in a political uproar, pitting its colonialists--heirs to the civilizing mission of the nineteenth century--against decolonizers. And the book bears that sign of its time: The colonial motif pops up everywhere, presented as a timeless feature of ways of life in collision. So it was at the Battle of Tours in 732, which stopped the Muslim juggernaut; and so it is now in the anti-Western sentiments in the Arab world. Whether the conflict split religion and religion, town and country, or liberty and right, the colonial view benefits from Braudel's phenomenal depth of knowledge and synthesizing agility, and his palpable curiosity enlivens the sometimes deadly textbook form. For serious history collections. Gilbert Taylor
