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Michael Harsgor
Total History:
The Annoles School
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Now it has happened again (for only the second time in 2,300
years). A third model of historiography has emerged on the banks
of the Seine and has been developed to its present brilliant form by
the historians gathered round the periodical Annales: Economies,
Societes, Civilisations. For Stoianovich, not since Ranke has there
been a more important school or better method of historical research. The origins of this Annales method can be found in the
work of Lucien Febvre (1878-1956) and Marc Bloch (1886-1944). It
had its roots in the French tradition but was also inspired, as its
sub-title suggests, by the German Vierteljahrschriftfur Sozial- und
Wirtschaftsgesch ichte.
Annales first appeared in 1929, a time when Marxist scholars
were attempting to uncover the economic base of the political and
cultural superstructure. If their results were uninspiring they nevertheless encouraged interest in a more scientific approach. However,
from the beginning the founders of Annales felt that both the Third
Republic style of history and the economic determinism of the
Marxists were too constricting for the kind of historiography they
had in mind. They aspired to higher things - to a discipline which
both dominated and embraced all other studies of the human condition. They celebrated every attempt to enlarge Clio's realm.
Hence their admiration for Jacob Burckhardt (d. 1897) who
history to
brought about a shift from conventional
could
which
for
Karl
only be
Lamprecht
Kulturgeschichte,
una
formulation
which
a
science',
socio-psychological
'primarily
doubtedly influenced later Annales evolution. And Wilhelm
Dilthey (d. 1911) produced with his kind of Geistesgeschichte the
outline of what would in a more advanced stage of Annales growth
appear as histoire des mentalites. However, the detection of
sources cannot impair the originality of the enterprise launched by
Febvre and Bloch at the end of the 1920s, which also witnessed the
publication of the first volume of Henri Berr's collection L'Evolution de l'Humanite with its overall title Synthese Historique. The need for a fusion of economic, social and cultural history
was increasingly felt and the magic word 'synthesis' was embroidered on the new flag. Even if in those days nearly half a century ago the first Annales researchers were still far from the recent
proudly imperialistic cri de guerre uttered by Emmanuel Le Roy
Ladurie, one of the present champions of the current: 'History is
the synthesis of all social sciences (sciences de l'homme) turned
towards the past' - where the original braquees is far stronger
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time from inside the Annales empire, have started to express a certain uneasiness about the neglect of what was once considered the
mainstream of historical writing. Jacques Le Goff,13 a specialist in
the study of various cultural and ethnic medieval traditions, was
perhaps the first to ring the alarm bell. He complained that the inclination to relegate 'events' - generally speaking, political history
to the background presents the reader with only
an 'atrophied appendix' of real history (since, paradoxically,
political history is allegedly seen by Annales eyes as such an
appendix). Bernard Guenee'4 too is concerned at the absence of interest in the history of the State demonstrated by researchers too
absorbed by 'economics' and 'society'. It was mainly for these
reasons, as was at least recognized by Braudel himself, that it took
so long for the Annales school to gain recognition outside France.
Another reason lay in its specific Frenchness, and a third could
have been its bold and wide synthesizing. For G.G. Diligenskij, a
Soviet critic,16the school's main vices are its refusal to accept the
Marxist periodization of history, its too narrow chronological
limits resulting from a curiosity directed especially towards preindustrial societies, its publication of 'outright' anti-Soviet material
(this argument contradicts the previous one), its attempts to include
the study of mentalities in a general synthesis, which can only lead
to the publication of articles reflecting a basic reliance upon faith
accompanied by a consequent disparagement of reason, a most
extraordinary accusation to be aimed at Annales. Further on,
Professor Diligenskij finds 'a vulgar biological materialism' in
articles published by the review and considers that in spite of
studies of a certain value, as a whole the journal expresses 'the
crisis of bourgeois historical thought and its panic-stricken fear of
historical materialism.'16 Other historians, Anglo-Saxon this time,
could not stomach Braudel's method, which can be rightly
considered as an epitome of the Annales style. Professor Geoffrey
Parker, an admirer of both Braudel and his review, enjoyed himself
collecting critical opinions about the French historian's masterpiece'7: G.R. Elton was disappointed back in 1967 that the only
things missing in Braudel's Mediterranean were 'policy and action';
H.S. Hughes thought that the different sections of the book 'never
quite came together'; Felix Gilbert remarked in 1971 that 'Braudel
never fully succeeds in showing the relevance of the long-range developments for the events in the period of Philip II'; and John
Elliot, in 1973, that 'Braudel's mountains move his men, but never
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his men the mountains.' Geoffrey Parker, on the other hand, states
that this work, which took 26 years in the writing, is 'a masterpiece
which will stand for ever', a sweeping statement concerning a study
in history. Other sincere admirers of both Annales and Braudel,
such J.H. Hexter'8 who praises the French historian's proud
formula 'History is the science of the sciences of man', cannot
nevertheless conceal a certain uneasiness about the hatred felt by
Annales scholars for poor histoire evenementielle. Hexter is even
led to complain that about that kind of history Braudel 'writes
with a passionate and at timers unreasonable antipathy' unreasonableness being not usually considered a virtue in an
historian.
Professor H.R. Trevor-Roper appears no less favourably disposed towards his French colleagues of the Annales tendency; but
thinks the kind of 'great history' they are attempting sometimes
'seems beyond human powers."9 He is also somewhat taken aback
by their above-mentioned 'antipathy' (especially that of Braudel)
towards political history, the study of the domination of man by
man and of the way in which the many are led by the few. TrevorRoper tries to explain that to Braudel and his disciples 'this political
history is merely the topmost layer of his multidimensional study:
the long-exposed layer which has been rendered familiar by
previous research'.The point is, of course, that 'previous research'
had been done outside the Annales sphere of influence.
Accordingly it was done 'flatly', without the benefit of the deep
synthesizing research which is a must for this French historical
school. Therefore, for a rational, consistent, coherent Annales
scholar
. . layer' of
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10
It has already been said that the flaw in the majestic structure
was felt by the younger Annales scholars, who consequently started
to produce political-historical studies. Lately the master himself,
Professor Braudel, has had second thoughts about the matter: 'I
don't think of society the way I did forty years ago', he said in a recent interview; 'there is no society without hierarchy. You have
economic hierarchy - the rich and the poor; cultural hierarchythe knowledgeable and the ignorant; political hierarchy - the
rulers and the ruled. The hierarchies maintain themselves. The permanence of hierarchies - I didn't see this problem with enough
depth.'25Mieux vaut tard quejamais ... A system of thought able
to overcome its idiosyncrasies has an open future; the formidable
Annales 'school' has not yet said its last word.
The storms of May-June 1968 in France - the students' revolt
and the collapse of the university system - affected the academic
institution which was the main basis of Annales scholarship during
its struggling years. A chain reaction of reforms abolished that institution - the Sixieme Section de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes which became finally, in 1975, the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en
Sciences Sociales, with the right to grant degrees.
And so, after all, Annales finally conquered most of the French
academic system dealing with historical research and even crossed
the ocean. In May 1977 a Fernard Braudel Center for the Study of
Economies, Historical Systems and Civilizations was inaugurated
at the State University of New York at Binghamton. The interdisciplinary synthesis is turning into an international, global one,
under the blue-white-red flag - in the realm of history, France is a
super-power!
Professor Stoianovich was therefore quite correct when, summing up his analysis he stated that the total effect of Annales inquiry since its foundation has been to create an historical paradigm
for the world community of historical scholarship. This community
is now challenged by an intellectual realm fabulously rich, teeming
with fertile ideas, with daring initiatives, an ever-expanding
universe of research and synthesis, to which Traian Stoinovich's
book is the best passport, the more so as it is the only one.
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11
NOTES
1. Traian Stoianovich, French Historical Method, The Annales Paradigm,
with a foreword by Fernand Braudel, (London 1976).
2. Francois Simiand is the author of Recherches anciennes et nouvelles sur le
mouvement general des prix du XVIe au XIXe siecles (Paris 1932); Inflation et
stabilisation alternees; le developpement economique des Etats- Unis (Paris 1934); an
old Simiand article was reprinted in Annales (January-February 1960) 'Methode
historique et science sociale'; for material on Simiand cf. Stoianovich, op. cit., 200
n.38 & 40. Henri Hauser was Marc Bloch's predecessor in the Sorbonne chair of
economic history; among other books he is the author of La response de Jean Bodin
a M. de Malestroit (1568) (Paris 1932); Recherches et documents sur l'histoire des
prix en France de 1500 d 1800 (Paris 1936).
3. C.-E. Labrousse is the author of Esquisse du mouvement des prix et des
revenus en France au XVIIIe siecle (Paris 1933); La Crise de l'economie francaise a
la fin de I'Ancien Regime et au debut de la Revolution (Paris 1944); on Meuvret, cf.
Stoianovich, op. cit., 172 n. 46; 199, n.36 and on Spooner, ibid., 199 n.37.
4. Goubert's these was published in Paris in 1960 (a paperback edition for the
general public appeared in 1968 under the title Cent Mille provinciaux au XVIIe
siecle).
5. Braudel's thought was influenced both by the structure and style of Lucien
Febvre's these d'Etat: Philippe II et la Franche-Comte: Etude d'histoire politique,
religieuse et sociale, (Paris 1911) (a paperback edition without foot-notes was
published in 1970); another influence was that of Simiand's theories, discussed in
Georg (sic) I. Iggers, New directions in European Historiography (Middletown,
Conn. 1975), 59. Braudel's Mediterranean appeared in a new edition in 1966 and
was translated by Sian Reynolds under the title: The Mediterranean and the
Mediterranean world in the age of Philip II (London 1972-3). Other works by
Braudel include Ecrits sur l'histoire, (Paris 1969), and Civilisation materielle et
capitalisme - XVe et XIXe siecles, (Paris 1967).
6. Le Roy Ladurie's Paysans was published in 1966; his history of the climate
was translated by Barbara Bray under the title Times of feast, times of famine, a
history of the climate since the year 1000 (London 1971); this author, together with
Jean Paul Aron, published Anthropologie du conscrit franfais d'apres les comptes
numeriques et sommaires du recrutement de l'armee 1819-1826 (Paris 1972).
7. Chaunu's Seville was published, with a preface by Lucien Febvre, in
1955-59. This historian is a very prolific writer, an astounding feat considering the
quality of his output. He is the author, inter alia, of L'Amerique et les Americains
(Paris 1964); L'expansion europeenne du XIIIe au XVe siecle (Paris 1965); La
Civilisation de l'Europe classique (Paris 1966); Conquete et exploration des
nouveaux mondes - XVIe siecle (Paris 1969); L'Espagne de Charles Quint (Paris
1973); Histoire Science Sociale, la duree, l'espace et l'homme d l'epoque moderne
(Paris 1974); Le Temps des Reformes (Paris 1975).
8. For the relations between Annales and Marxist historians, see the index ofStoianovich's book, 253.
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12
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13
Michael Harsgor
is Professor of Early Modern History at the
University of Tel Aviv.
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