A History of Civilizations [Paperback]

Fernand Braudel (Author), Richard Mayne (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1995

"Refreshingly broad-brush in its approach...this history provides the big picture."—The Christian Science Monitor. Written from a consciously anti-enthnocentric approach, this fascinating work is a survey of the civilizations of the modern world in terms of the broad sweep and continuities of history, rather than the "event-based" technique of most other texts.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Braudel was the most prominent member of the Annales school of history in post-World War II France. This history, originally published in 1963 as part of curriculum reform for French secondary students, was eventually judged by French school teachers as too hard for their students and was withdrawn. More than half the book is devoted to the development of Western civilization, and despite the judgment of French school teachers, it is suitable for serious high school students along with undergraduate and public libraries.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From 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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 640 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (April 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140124896
• ISBN-13: 978-0140124897
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #329,784 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The First and Still the Best Multidisciplinary World History, November 21, 2005

By 

Ralph White (New England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A History of Civilizations (Paperback)

When Fernand Braudel originally published this text in the sixties, he became a pariah at the Sorbonne. In retrospect that disapprobation was the kind of seal of approval that "banned in Boston" came to embody. Previous histories drilled deep into one facet of history. Braudel's was a pioneering effort in multidisciplinary historical analysis. It captures the historical flow that evolves civilizations, sacrificing only the detail outside the themes. Even subsequent to "A History of Civilizations," other historians have been unable to write a thematic survey that matches this original. And don't be tempted to skip the "soft" introductory chapters with titles like "The Study of Civilization Involves All the Social Sciences," and "The Continuity of Civilizations." These tee up the hard topics, like "The Greatness and Decline of Islam." There's method in Braudel's approach, and it takes patience. Braudel's translator, Richard Mayne had his job cut out for him. The complex syntax is that of a French intellectual of the sixties, and it is retained in Mayne's text, but you become accustomed to it. Don't look for maps or photographs in this Penguin Paperback; the text alone is six hundred pages. There's only one other book in this space, "From Dawn to Decadence," by Jacques Barzun. In my view they are complementary.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars So so, but ...., August 25, 2008

By 

T. Duffy - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A History of Civilizations (Paperback)

Braudel is considered one of the great 20th c. historians. He fought the French educational establishment to broaden the scope of history to include material from sociology, anthropology, geography, etc., and above all economics. This was in opposition to the traditional kings and battles approach, and this book was intended as a textbook (not accepted by the authorities). Arguably the movement's been quite fruitful, but this book is a very mixed bag - occasionally excellent, sometimes quite bad, and usually mediocre to good. It's also not a history of civilizations - it deals with what Braudel considered the great living civilizations - and rather than being history as usually understood, it describes primary characteristics of each with some development over time. Even the treatment of each "civilization" varies a great deal from one to the next, e.g. considerable space is devoted to the literature of Latin America while not to the others. The civilizations included are the Muslim World, Black Africa, the Far East (includes India), then Europe and European civilization elsewhere (to which he devotes half the book).

In spite of the many gaps, blind spots and weaknesses, there are some real high points and original insights. For example, Braudel points out that, while the Crusades are usually seen as unmitigated folly in the West, and while they achieved nothing lasting on land, at their beginning the Mediterranean was dominated by Islam while at their end it was dominated by the West. This had important consequences limiting Islamic power and culture while removing constraints from those of the West. He's probably at his best dealing with the West and Islam, and at his worst dealing with Latin America. To his credit he doesn't pass over Africa as so many do, but gives it reasonable attention, describing among other things the great trading societies which grew up as a result of contact with Islam. His take on the United States is fairly sane, with useful analyses of the evolution of American capitalism and of the centralization of power and growth of bureaucracy in the Executive branch of the Federal government. But the section on the US has its share of romanticisms and a couple chauvinisms (that statement probably applies to all societies outside Europe, and perhaps to European ones as well). His take on the Soviet Union is balanced to slightly sympathetic, although it's odd that we never hear of the millions killed by Stalin (or Mao).

Braudel's rejection of traditional historical narrative, with its landmarks and mileposts, sometimes leaves you wondering what, where and when it is that he's talking about. More importantly, he has a great weakness for making overarching generalizations, usually devoid of rational arguments stocked with facts which might lead us to share his conclusions. It's often transparently obvious that these generalizations can neither explain the entire phenomenon they purport to explain, nor can the explanation be so simple. After a few of these you start to question Braudel's judgment. He also spends a fair amount of time contemplating then-contemporary problems and speculating about the future. He defends this, but his performance is unconvincing, particularly in light of events since he wrote (1962). All the same, for someone who doesn't expect this book to be comprehensive or even, and who reads it along with world histories which are, it's still worth reading for its strengths and for the not-infrequent original insights.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great to Good, February 4, 1999

By 

Robertomelbourne (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A History of Civilizations (Paperback)

It was always going to be difficult to write a book about Civilizations. The decision tree alone of what information to include/exclude would be a significant problem.

Braudel's thesis is that religion, culture and geography, together with traditional tools of history are all important in understanding civilizations. This is a true and accurate perspective.

He concentrates on Nth America, Europe, Asia, Islam and Africa. His chapter on Islam, and the first civilization studied, was outstanding and certainly he was able to tie in his thesis to this examination. However, I got the impression he got lazy, and ended up providing cobbled sketches of the other civilizations, and concentrating more on history than analysis. Hence why Great to good.