Annales school


Annales school

the group of sociologically inclined French historians associated with the journal Annales d'histoire économique et sociale, founded in 1929 by Lucien Febvre and Marc BLOCH. Its links with Marxism have been particularly strong, as have its links with sociology Distinguished by their opposition to traditional, national, political, chronological and narrative history members of the school have in particular emphasized the importance of social and economic history and longterm historical trends. As well as breaking with conventional units and methods of analysis in historical studies, the approaches employed included extensive consideration of geophysical and demographic factors as well as cultural and social structural factors. An example of the work of members of the school is Blochs Feudal Society, which combines comparative analysis and great novelty with scrupulous attention to detail. More recently the work of Fernand BRAUDEL, with its emphasis on writing all-embracing ‘global history’, has been especially influential within the social sciences, e.g. on the work of Immanuel WALLERSTEIN on the WORLD SYSTEM. See also HISTORY OF MENTALITIES.