Fernand Braudel - Civilization and Capitalism & more (7 books)

FERNAND BRAUDEL (1902-1985) was a French historian and a leader of the Annales School of historiography. His reputation stems in part from his writings, but even more from his success in making the Annales School the most important engine of historical research in France and much of the world after 1950.

Braudel emphasized the role of large-scale socioeconomic factors in the making and writing of history and can be considered as one of the precursors of world-systems theory. His vast, panoramic view used insights from other social sciences, employed the concept of the longue durée (long span), and downplayed the importance of specific events. His work stresses the slow and often imperceptible effects of space, climate and technology on the actions of human beings in the past.

The three-volume CIVILIZATION AND CAPITALISM is a broad-scale history of the preindustrial modern world, presented in the minute detail demanded by the school called cliometrics, focusing on how people made economies work. Like all his major works, it mixed traditional economic material with a thick description of the social impact of economic events on various facets of everyday life such as food, fashion, and social customs.


Unless otherwise indicated, the following books are in PDF format (of varying quality):

* AFTERTHOUGHTS ON MATERIAL CIVILIZATION AND CAPITALISM (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979. Translated by Patricia M. Ranum.

* CIVILIZATION AND CAPITALISM, Vol. 1: The Structures of Everyday Life (Collins, 1981). Translated by Siân Reynolds.

* CIVILIZATION AND CAPITALISM, Vol. 2: The Wheels of Commerce (Collins, 1982). Translated by Siân Reynolds.

* CIVILIZATION AND CAPITALISM, Vol. 3: The Perspective of the World (Collins, 1984). Translated by Siân Reynolds.

* THE MEDITERRANEAN AND THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD IN THE AGE OF PHILIP II (Harper & Row, 1972). 2 volumes. Translated by Siân Reynolds. [NOTE: There are approx. 150 pages missing from Vol. II]

* THE MEDITERRANEAN IN THE ANCIENT WORLD (Penguin, 2001). Translated by Siân Reynolds. -- EPUB