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Memory and the Mediterranean

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As a cofounder of the Annales school of history (which included such scholars as Marc Bloch, Georges Duby, and Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie), Braudel helped to define and popularize economic and social history, often relegating political events and intellectual developments--"the actions of a few princes and rich men [who] were more acted upon than actors"--to lesser status in the march of history. So this posthumously published survey of Mediterranean history is something of a surprise. While its pages contain expected, brilliant analyses of the geographic factors, commercial considerations, and technological advances that eventually created a politically cohesive if culturally splintered Mediterranean civilization, its final chapters allot noticeable space to the importance of statesmen, philosophers, and artists.

Braudel's broad coverage is understandable, given the original design and purpose of the book. Written in the late 1960s, the manuscript was meant as a general survey, the first volume in a cancelled series of illustrated books on the history of the Mediterranean. What's remarkable is how well the book has stood up over time. (A small number of notes correct suppositions since proved inaccurate or incomplete.) What's missing, however, is an appropriate selection of illustrations--and the text was clearly meant to accompany them. Although this edition includes 32 (quite striking) full-color pages of photographs, they are not keyed to the text and many have only tangential connections.

"Memory and the Mediterranean" begins with the archaeological discoveries that inform what we know about the Paleolithic era and the Neolithic civilizations (such as Catal Hoyuk) in the Fertile Cresent. Subsequent chapters discuss Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Crete, before turning to the relatively "dark ages" of the twelfth through eighth centuries B.C. By incorporating North African and Asian influences, Braudel deliberately moves the center of Mediterranean culture from Europe to where it belongs: in the center of the Mediterranean.

Before tackling the Greek "miracle" and the Roman empire, Braudel examines the Phoenicians, the Etruscans, and Greek colonization in what is unquestionably the best argued, most informative chapter of the book. He ably shows how historical trends--geography, natural disasters, migrations, commerce, maritime advances, science and technology, writing--led to the dominance enjoyed by the Romans in the coastal lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.

Yet this dominance was neither inevitable or preordained. While "the destiny of Rome is devastatingly simple. . . , people, events and details complicated the story." Braudel balances his own brand of geographic determinism with an acknowledgment of the muscle of Roman imperialism: "the very fact that the Mediterranean, while in thrall to Rome, was still a living entity with a healthy pulse of its own, meant that all its cultural goods continued to circulate, mingling ideas and beliefs, and bring about a uniformity in material civilization that has left traces still visible today." The result is a new way of thinking about a Mediterranean culture whose echoes are still seen everywhere.

_Memory and the Mediterranean_ is a previously unpublished book by French historian Fernand Braudel, one written in the 1960s and originally intended to be part of a larger series. Set aside with the death of the author's longtime friend and editor, Albert Skira and the collapse of the project, the book was only published for the first time in 1998, well after the author's death in 1985.

In the book's introduction, written by Oswyn Murray, we learn something of the history of the book and the series it was supposed to be a part of, as well as the life of Braudel himself. Braudel was an interesting man; he invented microfilm, copying thousands of historical texts for study prior to accepting a position at a Brazilian university, and his most famous work, _The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II_, he wrote during four years of captivity in a POW camp in France, aided by a few books, but "using mainly his prodigious memory of his prewar researches," writing the great treatise out by hand in exercise books on a small plank in a room shared with twenty other prisoners.

As there have been some advances in archaeology as well as changes in historical thinking, endnotes accompanied the text, with experts Jean Guilaine covering prehistory and Pierre Rouillard on history. I was surprised how few endnotes there were, as substantially much of what Braudel written is still current. Many of the notes referred to different dates for events and in particular artifacts - not surprising, as Braudel himself noted in the text how advances were continually being made in scientific dating methods - and in a few other areas, notably thoughts on prehistoric megalithic culture in the Mediterranean and on the crisis of the twelfth century B.C (both of which he seemed to have largely gotten wrong, not that either formed a very large part of the book's content).

Overall I found the book quite broad in scope, dealing mainly with regions, empires, movements, and the "longue duree," which is often translated as "the long perspective." Except for the last chapters on Greece and Rome, named individuals are rarely discussed. Much of the book dealt with the rise and fall of empires, the advancement and consequences of the mastery of new technologies such as pottery and weaving, as well as the continuing evolution of others, such as metalworking (tracing the advent of bronze, then iron), language (the development of an alphabet was to have profound consequences) and seafaring (his sections on the continuing evolution of ship technology were interesting and well-illustrated with contemporary art), and the development of trade and long-distance exchange in the Mediterranean as a whole and separately in the eastern and western portions. While it was good to have such a broad perspective that transcended local dynasties and city-states, sometimes it made for somewhat dry reading.

The book was epic in scope, covering the Mediterranean from prehistoric times to the founding of what would come to be the Byzantine Empire. The ancient Jews and Christians didn't get a lot of coverage but some other Mediterranean civilizations - notably the Phoenicians, Minoans, Carthaginians, and the Etruscans - are covered in detail. Indeed Braudel's work contained the most information on the Etruscans that I have personally ever read.

One of things that Braudel did that I liked the most was to make comparisons of ancient Mediterranean countries, entities, and movements with more recent counterparts. He compared the scribes of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia to the mandarin class of China, as it took years to master early writing and number systems, restricting writing and calculating to a privileged and talented elite. Continuing the China analogy, Egypt thanks to its rich harvest of grain and large amounts of Nubian gold (Nubia means "land of gold") was for centuries economically dominant and self-sufficient, extremely confident and self-centered. Much as Spain once was made rich and become dependent upon New World silver, so too did the Phoenicians and later the Carthaginians become rich and dependent upon rich silver mines in Spain. Carthage itself was a new city that sprouted from nothing like an American town according to Braudel, for a time a materialistic, fast-moving, dynamic melting pot of a civilization.

One thing about the work that I both liked a lot and disliked was the fact that Braudel would bring up a fascinating point and then pretty much drop it. He speculated on why the "Macedonian Wunderkind" (a.k.a. Alexander the Great) didn't turn his great drive to the west rather than the east, conquering Carthage (something the Carthaginians greatly feared) and turning the entire Mediterranean into a Greek lake. He raised this point, discussed a little what might have happened, and then dropped the point in about three pages. Similarly he mused on the vast difference between Greek science and philosophy and the actual urge to apply these thoughts and ideas to mechanical experiments and practical tools, why there was no full-scale industrial revolution in Rome, and why when there were Romans who had produced steam-powered toys but had not then sought to apply this to a wide range of applications. He dismissed the standard answer to the question - that the existence of slavery killed any drive to produce labor saving devices - by noting that among other things that the workers in the early English and then the European industrial revolution hardly had a good standard of living and he seemed to imply that they were little better than slaves themselves (perhaps in fairness no one has the answer here). Braudel also briefly discussed whether or not conflict between Carthage and Rome was inevitable, a section that I thought ended just as it was getting interesting (as for a time the Etruscans, Greeks, and Phoenicians/Carthaginians shared the same sea).

An interesting book, one worthwhile I think to the serious student of ancient Mediterranean history but not exactly light reading at times.

Memory and the Mediterranean is a wonderful read. The author, Fernand Braudel (as translated by Sian Reynolds from a text edited by Roselyne de Ayala and Paule Braudel), uses all the skills that have made him renowned as one of the more important historians of the twentienth century in this venture. This book was the first volume of a planned series about the history of the Mediterranean by different authors with this volume being the first. The series never happened and this book was, therefore, never published during the author's lifetime. It is to our benefit that it is now being published posthumously. The history begins prior to Neolothic and takes the reader through to the Roman Empire. There is wonderful writing, many moments of humour and the strongly held opinions of a historian who has earned his stubbornness. Some of the earlier ideas have been challenged or, even, defeated by later archeology but these are explained in the end notes as not to disrupt the wonderful flow of the narrative. The chapter on the Greeks, particularly the pre- and early classical period, is the most interesting. A book of this type covers too large a time period for any significant analysis but this book is effective as a journey, through both history and history writing.

Fernand Braudel is thought by many to be the greatest historian of the 20th Century. MEMORY AND THE MEDITERRANEAN certainly supports this contention, as it reveals a comprehensive understanding of a complex area over many thousands of years. Published after his death, M&M was originally written in the 1960s, although much of the text was updated before Braudel's death in 1985. Roselyne de Ayala and Paule Braudel edited the text published in 2001. Furthermore, Françoise Galtier, Chief Curator in the Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquties at the Louvre and Jean-Louis Huot, Professor at the University of Paris read sections of the book and provided comments concerning current thinking on various issues (footnoted in an appendix).

I found Braudel's book extremely well written and easy to read (translation by Siân Reynolds). I think anyone with a keen interest in this area and period could follow this narrative. I have a personal interest in goddess-centered religions, so I was very pleased to see that Braudel covered this topic throughout his narrative. In addition, the book contains a nice section of photographs of "Images of Religion" with numerous examples of female goddesses. For those interested in technological issues, the book includes a nice photographic section showing various sailing vessels. A good but not perfect section of maps has been added at the back of the book. There are some technical errors (page numbers of illustrations, etc. incorrectly noted), but I suggest the editors examined content, not publication niceties (copy editing just ain't what it used to be!!). Because Braudel covers the Middle East from the Neolithic period to the Romans, his book nicely complements Bernard Lewis' HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE EAST which covers the past 2,000 years, beginning with the Romans and is also relatively easy to follow.

Whether he intended to or not (and I believe he did), Braudel makes the case that s/he who is uninformed about the history of the Mediterranean is badly informed indeed Although he covers many aspects of the Mediterranean past, Braudel's major focus is the Levant and Greece and their interaction. Over several millennia, hundreds of civilizations formed and dissolved in this ancient and tortured land. Apparently, warring parties and/or outsiders never learned to leave well enough alone. None of the conquerors left a lasting impression, not even the Greeks who held the Levant for thousands of years.

I enjoyed this book because Braudel wrote with the confidence of one who understood his subject well. Although he does not spend a great deal of time on any single person or group, he provides numerous citations for those who wish to follow up on various aspects of his discussion. I think the book provides an excellent overview of a complex place and is a must for anyone seeking the big picture of past times and an understanding of the current predicament in the Middle East..

Braudel weaves together natural history and human history in a seamless garment. He is skillful at demonstrating how the Mediterranean environment impacted and helped create the civilizations that formed the basis for Western culture. The author's great insight, that Egyptian, Greek and Roman cultures are part of a Mediterranean whole, is summarized brilliantly in this book. An essential synthesis after a reader has gotten to know the three great ancient civilizations.

Braudel, famous for erudite histories, is at the height of his power in this work. Written for a canceled series and published by his heirs in 1998, it's an insightful portrait of Mediterranean culture from prehistory to the Roman era.

Developmental themes (climate, soils, water, geography, topography, economy, trade, technology, irrigation, navigation, seafaring, colonization, metalworking, art, etc.) skillfully provide an objective framework for appreciation of interactive civilizations not always well represented by surviving records.

The cloth bound edition is amply illustrated with photographs, tables, and maps. Highly recommended.

Other valuable works by Braudel: `The Identity of France' (Volumes 1 & 2), `Civilization & Capitalism 15-18C' (three volumes).

Other reviewers have addressed the subject matter, I'd add that his approach might have as much to do with how enjoyable this book is as the material he covers. This book (and I'm assuming, his others) isn't just a recounting of the lives of major figures, retellings of major battles, etc - i.e. history as he tells it isn't just a trivial-pursuit collection of dramatic events.

Instead, he is careful to put historical change in the context of how it actually happens - usually gradual developments over long periods of time, the slow social transformations that take place, with context always playing a large role. Braudel does a good job conveying this, and it makes the truly dramatic events that much more significant.

I also had the feeling that he was being very honest with the reader, pointing out the places where there is contention among historians or archaeologists, and not wasting our time with differing viewpoints when when there's general agreement.

This general history of the Mediterranean traces Mediterranean area history from its earliest geological roots to the civilizations which flourished later. Memory And The Mediterranean originally was written in the late 1960s but has been set aside until now, updated to reflect recent archaeological discoveries in the region.