Author(s) Fernand Braudel and Immanuel Wallerstein - History and The Social Sciences The Longue Durée

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History and the Social Sciences: The Longue Dure

Author(s): Fernand Braudel and Immanuel Wallerstein
Source: Review (Fernand Braudel Center), Vol. 32, No. 2, COMMEMORATING THE LONGUE
DURE (2009), pp. 171-203
Published by: Research Foundation of SUNY for and on behalf of the Fernand Braudel Center
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Historyand theSocial Sciences

The LongueDure
FernandBraudeV
is a general crisis in the human sciences. They are all
There
overwhelmedby theirsuccesses,if only because of the accumulationof new knowledge.But it is also because theynow need
such collecand how to organize intelligently
to workcollectively,
it or not,
wish
tiveworkhas yetto be determined.Whetherthey
by the progressof the
theyare all affected,directlyor indirectly,
nonethelessin the
remain
But
them.
mostquick-witted
they
among
gripof a humanismthatis retrogradeand insidious,one thatcan
forscholarship.All of them,with
no longerserveas a framework
are concernedabout theirplace in the
varyingdegreesof lucidity,
monstrousarrayof old and new modes of research,whose necessaryconvergenceseems to be in process.
will the human sciences tryto
Faced with these difficulties,
to define themselvesor by
effort
additional
an
resolvethem by
becomingstill more cranky?Perhaps theyhave the illusion that
suchan additionaleffortcan succeed. For theyare morethanever
preoccupied with definingtheir particulargoals, methods,and
merits-runningthe risk of churningup old formulasand false
problems.They are engaged in bickeringendlesslyabout the borders thatseparate them,fullyor partially,fromneighboringdisciplines.For each of them seems in factto dream of remaining
whereit is or to returnto where it was. A fewisolated scholars
tryto suggestlinkages. Claude Lvi-Strauss1pushes "structural"
anthropologyin the directionof the techniquesof linguistics,the
horizons of "unconscious"history,and the juvenile imperialism
of "qualitative"mathematics.He is tryingto establisha science
thatwould bring togetheranthropology,political economy,and
*Translated ImmanuelWallerstein.
by
1
Paris: Pion, 1958,passim,and especiallypage 329.
structurale.
Anthropologie
review,xxxii,2, 2009,171-203
171
172
FernandBraudel
linguisticsunder the label of the science of communications.But

is thereanyonereadyto cross these bordersand enterthese new
groupings?For the mere toss of a coin, even geographywould be
preparedto divorcehistory!
But let us not be unfair.There is good reason forthese quarrelsand theserefusals.The wishto distinguishoneselffromothers
is bound to resultin wideningone's curiosity.To deny the other
is alreadyto know the other.Even more,withoutintendingit exthe social sciencesimpose themselveson each other.Each
plicitly,
one triesto grasp the social in its "totality."
Each one encroaches
on the other,believingthatit is remainingin its corner.Economics discoversthe sociologythatsurroundsit. History,perhaps the
least structuredof the human sciences,accepts lessons fromall
its multipleneighborsand tries to absorb them. So, despite the
reticence,the oppositions,the quiet ignorance,the outline of a
"commonmarket"is beginningto come intoexistence.It wouldbe
worthpursuingthis path in the comingyearseven if,eventually,
each disciplinemightfindit again useful,fora while,to resumea
morestrictly
particularpath.
But the firstthingwe urgentlyneed to do is to come nearerto
each other.In the UnitedStates,thishas takenthe formof collectiveresearchon culturalzones in the contemporary
world.This is
called "area studies"and consistsof the studyby a team of social
scientistsof thepoliticalmonstersof thecontemporary
world:China, India, Russia,Latin America,theUnitedStates.To understand
themis a questionof survival!Furthermore,
in thiscomingtogether of techniquesand different
kindsofknowledge,theparticipants
cannotremaintetheredto theirparticularresearchproblem,deaf
and blind,as theyused to be, to whatthe othersare saying,writing,and thinking!In addition,the bringingtogetherof the social
sciencesmustbe all-inclusive.One should not neglectolder disciplinesin favorofnewerones thatseem to be so muchmorepromising,whenthisin factmaynot turnout to be thecase. For example,
the place givento geographyin theseAmericaneffortsis virtually
and thatofferedto historyveryslender.And indeed
non-existent,
one has to ask, whatsortof historyis included?
The othersocial sciencesare ratherill-informed
about thecrisis
throughwhichhistoryhas been going forthe last twentyor thirty
years.Theytendto misunderstanditand not to be acquaintedwith
the workof historians.They do not knowthe part of social reality
HISTORY AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
173
ofwhichhistoryis the faithfulservant,ifnotalwaysa skilledadvocate. These are the social continuities,the multipleand contradictorytemporalitiesof human lives,whichconstitutenot only the
social life.This
substanceof the past but the stuffof present-day
amidstthe debate that
is one morereason to underlinevigorously,
is going on among all the human sciences,how important,how
usefulhistoryis. Or ratherhowimportantand usefulitis to underwhichemergefromthe workof
standthe dialecticof continuities,
the historian'srepeatedobservations.Nothingis more important,
in our opinion, than this living,intimate,infinitely
repeated oppositionbetweenthe instantaneousand the timethatflowsslowly.
Whetherwe are dealing with the past or the present,an awareness of thepluralityof temporalitiesis indispensableto a common
methodologyof the humansciences.
I shall dwell on history,on the temporalitiesof history.I do
thisless forthereadersofAnnales,who knowtheseworks,thanfor
eththosein neighboringdisciplines-economists,ethnographers,
linguists,
sociologists,psychologists,
nologists(or anthropologists),
or statiseven
social
mathematicians
demographers,geographers,
and
research
we
whose
are
all
ticians.They
experiments
neighbors
havefollowedformanyyearsbecause itseemed to us (stillseems to
us) that,in theirwakeor bycontactwiththem,historyis furnished
a new vision.Perhapswe have somethingto offerthemin return.
The recentresearchesof historianshave offeredus- consciously
or not,willinglyor not-an evermorepreciseidea of the multiplicityof temporalitiesand of the exceptionalimportanceof the long
term.This last concept,more than historyitself-historywitha
hundredfaces-is sure to be ofinterestto our neighbors,the social
sciences.
I. HISTORY AND CONTINUITIES
All historicalwritingperiodizes the past, and makes choices
among chronologicalrealities,based on positiveor negativeprefwhich
erencesthatare moreor less conscious.Traditionalhistory,
is orientedto brieftimespans, to the individual,to the event,has
longaccustomedus to an accountthatis precipitate,dramatic,and
breathless.
174
FernandBraudel
has madecyclicalshifts
The neweconomicand socialhistory
abouttheirduration.
centralto itsanalysisand arguesprimarily
It has been fascinatedby the mirageand by the realitiesof the
cyclicalriseand fallof prices.It has placedbesidethe narrative
of thecyclicalphase that
a recitative
(or traditional
"recitative")
dividesthepastintolargeslicesof 10,20,or 50 years.Wellbeyond
ofevenmoresustainedbreadth,
thissecondrecitative
liesa history
thistimeofsecularlength:thehistory
oflong,evenverylong,duration(longuedure).This formula,
forgood or ill,has becomea
standardtermforme,to designatetheoppositeofwhatFranois
Simiand,one of theearliestto followtheusageof Paul Lacombe,
calledepisodichistory
No matter
thedesig(histoire
vnementielle).
on
we
shall
center
our
discussion
these
two
nations,
polesoftime,
theinstantaneous
and thelong-term.
Notthatthesetermshavea definitive
meaning.Taketheword
I
like
to
"event."would
limitit,toimprison
itin theshortterm.An
eventis an explosion,something
thathas "thesoundof newness"
as
in
thesixteenth
Amidits
said
(nouvelle
sonnante) they
century.
deceptivesmoke,it fillstheconsciousdomainof today'speople,
butitdoesn'tlastlong,disappearing
almostas soonas one sees its
flame.
The philosophers
the
probablywouldsaythatI am emptying
word"event"of a good partof itscontent.An event,at thevery
Someleast,mayincludea seriesof meaningsand relationships.
timesit mayprovidetheevidenceofverymajorchanges.And by
theperhapscontrived
dear to hisgameof "causes"and "effects"
toriansin thepast,itcan includea periodfarlongerthanitsown
occurrence.
theeventbecomeslinked,bydestretchable,
Infinitely
or
to
a
whole
chain
ofevents,
ofunderlying
realities
sign bychance,
thatthenbecomeimpossible,
it seems,to disentangle,
one from
theother.Bysuchan arithmetical
Benedetto
Croce
is able
game,
to claimthatwithineveryeventall ofhistory,
all ofhumankind
is
at will.On condition,
to
contained,and thuscan be rediscovered
be sure,thatwe add to thisfragment
whatis notin itat firstsight
and therefore
to discernwhatis or is notadmissibleto includein
it.It is thiscleverand dangerousgamethatwe findin therecent
articlesofJean-Paul
Sartre.2
2
Les Temps
nos. 139 & 140,
Sartre,"Questionsde mthode,"
Modernes,
Jean-Paul
1957.
175
So let us tryto use clearer language, replacing"event"with

"shortterm"-whichis on the scale of the individual,of dailylife,
of our illusions,of our momentaryawarenesses.It is the preferred
timeof the chroniclerand thejournalist.Now,let us thenobserve
thata chronicleor a newspaperoffersus, in additionto great,socalled historicalevents,the trivialhappeningsof ordinarylife-a
fire,a trainaccident,the price of wheat,a crime,a theatricalperformance,a flood.Everyonethusrealizes thatthereexistsa short
institutermin everysphereof life-the economic,social, literary,
tional,religious,even the geographic(a gustof wind,a tempestas wellas in the political.
At firstglance,thepast is thismass ofdetailedfacts,some spectacular,othersobscure and constantlyrepeated,the kind of facts
or
whichthesedaysare the regularquarryof the microsociologist
this
massive
as
But
of
the
microhistorian
sociometrists
well).
(and
arraydoes not constitutethe whole thickrealityof historythatwe
maysubjectto carefulscientificreflection.Social science feelsalmostrepelledbytheevent.And notwithoutcause. The shortterm
is themostcapricious,the mostdeceptiveof timeperiods.
This is the explanationwhysome of us historianshave come to
be verywaryof traditional,so-called episodic history,a label that
withthatof politicalhistory.For politioverlaps,perhapsunjustly,
cal historyis neithernecessarilynor inevitablyepisodic. But nonethelessitis a factthat,exceptfortheartificialsummarystatements
withwhichitfillsitspages (statementsthatusuallylack anytemporal breadth)3and exceptforthe occasional long-term
explanations
thatare included,almostall of politicalhistoryof thelasthundred
yearshas been focusedon "greatevents"and has confineditselfto
writingabout the shortterm.
This was perhapsthepriceitpaid foritsgreataccomplishments
duringthis time-acquiringscientifictools of workand rigorous
methods.The massivediscoveryof documentsled historiansto
believethatthewholeof truthwas locatedin authenticdocuments.
Only recentlywas Louis Halphen stillwriting4that"it sufficesto
allowoneselfin some sense to be carriedalong bythe documents,
read in sequence,such as we findthem,to see the chain of events
This ideal, "history
revealthemselvesto us almostautomatically."
3
on theeve of theReforma"Europein 1500,""The worldin 1880,""Germany
tion."
4Introduction
Paris:P.U.F.,1946,p. 50.
l'Histoire,
176
FernandBraudel
in
in themaking,"
culminated
at theendofthenineteenth
century
for
ambition
of
ones
whose
chronicles a newstyle,
preciproducing
as
seen
sionled to recording
stepbystep
through
episodichistory
ofambassadorsor theparliamentary
readingthecorrespondence
debates.
in theeighteenth
and early
forhistorians
It wasquitedifferent
to theperspectives
centurieswhohad been attentive
nineteenth
of the longuedure,on the basis of whichthe greathistoriansFustel-could piece together
Michelet,Ranke,JacobBurckhardt,
thelargerpicture.Ifone believesthatsuchgoingbeyondtheshort
of the
termwas themostprecious,albeittherarest,achievement
roleofthe
lasthundredyears,one willappreciatetheoutstanding
of
and
of
of
historiography institutions, religions, civilizations,
deals withvasttimepethanksto archaeology
(whichnecessarily
of classical
of
the
role
of
the
riods),
historiography
avant-garde
Thesehistorians
werethesalvationofourcraft.
Antiquity.
The recentbreakwithtraditional
formsof nineteenth-centuhas
not
been
a
total
breakwiththeshortterm.
ryhistoriography
Therehas been a movement,
as we know,towardeconomicand
This upheaval
social historyat the expenseof politicalhistory.
methhas broughtabouta veritablerenewal,inevitably
involving
of thecentersofinterest,
along
odologicalchanges,displacement
all
of
has
which
withan increaseofquantitative
certainly
history,
notexhausteditsimpact.
histoBut,mostof all, therehas been a shiftof traditional
A
a
seem
appropriate
temporality. day, yearmight
riographical
the
ofdays.
of
time
for
a
historian.
Time
was
sum
lengths
political
Butifone wantedto measurea pricecurve,a demographic
proin interest
variations
rates,thestudyofprogression,
wagetrends,
duction(morehopedforthanachieved),a closeanalysisoftrade,
itrequiredmuchlongermeasuresoftime.
A newmode of historical
is emerging.
Let us call it
narrative
the"recitative"
of thecyclicalphase {conjoncture),
thecycle,even
the"intercycle,"
whichoffered
us timelengthsofa dozenyears,a
of
a
of theclasand
the
quarter century,
longest,thehalf-century
sical Kondratieff
cycle.For example,leavingaside briefups and
downs,pricesrose in Europefrom1791to 1817,and wentdown
from1817to 1852.This slowtwofold
riseand fallwas a complete
intercycle
throughout
Europeandjustabouttheentireworld.
177
No doubt these chronologicalperiods have no absolutevalue.

kindsof measures-growthof the economyand of
Usingdifferent
national income and national product-Franois Perroux5would
timemarkers,whichare perhapsmoreusecome up withdifferent
ful.But we should not allow ourselvesto get bogged down in such
discussions!It is surelythe case thatthe historiannow has at his
whichhas become a mode of expladisposal a new temporality,
nationby means of whichhistorycan be periodized in as yetunknownways,usingthesecurvesand theiroscillations.
So it is thatErnestLabrousse and his studentshave set to work
on a vastresearchprojectin social history,
usingquantitativemethods, about whichtheytold us in theirmanifestoat the recentHistoricalCongress in Rome (1955). I am not being unjust to their
projectin sayingthatthisresearchmustnecessarilyculminatein
theboundariesofsocial cyclicalphases (perhapseven
determining
of social structures).We cannotknowin advance whethersuch social temporalitieswillbe as fastor as slowas economic temporalities.
these two enormouspersonas,social cyclesand
Furthermore,
economiccycles,oughtnot to make us lose sightof otheractors,
whose movementswill be difficult,perhaps impossible,to determine,in theabsence of anyprecisemeasures.Science,technology,
mental constructs,civilizations(to use this
politicalinstitutions,
convenientword),all similarlyhave theirlifeand growthrhythms.
The new cyclicalhistorywill only reach maturitywhen it has assembledthe entireorchestra.
bythe simpleprocessof goingbeyond
Logically,thisrecitative,
itstemporallimits,should have led us to the longuedure.But,for
manyreasons,this logical next step was not taken,and a return
to the shorttermis going on beforeour veryeyes.Perhapsit has
been thoughtmore necessary(or more urgent)to reconcile"cyclical" historywithtraditionalshort-term
historythanto proceed forwardinto the unknown.Using militarylanguage,we mightspeak
of consolidatingour advances.ErnestLabrousse'sfirstgreatwork
in 1933was a studyof thegeneralmovementof pricesin Francein
In hisbook published
a secularmovement.6
theeighteenthcentury,
in 1943,thegreatestworkofhistorypublishedin Francein thelast
5 Cf. his Thorie
Cahiers de l'I.S. E.A., 1957.
gnraledu progrsconomique,
6
desprixetdesrevenusen Franceau XVIIIe sicle,2 vol., Pans,
Esquissedu mouvement
Dalloz,1933.
FernandBraudel
178
twenty-five
years,thesameErnestLabroussegavein to a need to
in orderto locatein the
returnto a lessburdensome
temporality
verydepthsof the 1774-1791depressionone of themajorcauses
indeedits launching-pad.
Evenso, he
of the FrenchRevolution,
In
And thenhe wentfurther.
was stillutilizinga demi-intercycle.
in
in
"Comment
Paris
hispaperat theinternational
1948,
congress
naissent
les rvolutions?"
he soughtthistimeto linka short-term
economicdrama (new style)to short-term
politicalpathos(very
old style),
thatoftherevolutionary
days.Herewearebackintothe
was
shortterm,and up to our necksin it.To be sure,theattempt
it
was!
The
historian
and
useful.
But
how
symptomatic
permissible
the
director.
How could he evergiveup the
enjoysbeing
stage
dramaoftheshortterm,thebesttricksofa veryold trade?
thereis whateconomists
Longerthancyclesand intercycles,
call, withoutalwaysstudying
them,seculartrends.But veryfew
in them.Theirviewson structural
economists
areinterested
crises,
whichhavenotbeen subjectto thetestof historical
verification,
based on at most
taketheformof roughsketchesor hypotheses,
the recentpast,sayto 1929,at mostto 1870.7Nonetheless,
they
to thestoryofthelonguedure.
providea usefulintroduction
They
are a first
key.
The secondkey,farmoreuseful,is the term"structure."
For
goodorill,itpervadesthediscussionofthelonguedure.
By"strucsocial
an
a
observers
ture,"
imply organization, degreeof coherand socialmasses.For
betweenrealities
ence,ratherfixedrelations
an architecus historians,
a structure
is certainly
an assemblage,
ture,butevenmoreitis a realitythattimecan onlyslowlyerode,
one thatgoes on fora longtime.Certainstructures,
in theirlong
of
become
the
stable
elements
of
an
life,
infinity generations.
They
encumber
and
restrict
and
hence
its
Other
control
flow.
it,
history
structures
crumblemorequickly.
Butall structures
are simultaneouslypillarsand obstacles.As obstacles,theyprovidelimitations
call envelopes)fromwhichmanand hisex(whatmathematicians
Thinkofhowdifficult
itis to
periencescannotliberatethemselves.
breakthrough
certaingeographical
certainbiological
frameworks,
certain
limits
or anotherspirito
even
one
realities,
productivity,
7
de la structure
cod'une thorie
Explained in detail by Ren Clemens,Prolgomnes
Paris,Domat-Montchrestien,
1952;see alsoJohannAkerman,
nomique,
"Cycleet strucno. 1, 1952.
ture,"Revueconomique,
179
are also prisonsof the longue

tual constraint.Mentalframeworks
dure.
The mostaccessibleexample is still thatof geographicalconstraint.Man is a prisonerforlong centuriesof climates,of vegetations,ofanimalpopulations,oftypesofcrop,ofslowlyconstructed

equilibria,whichhe cannot transformwithoutthe riskof endanTake theroleof transhumancein mountainlife,
geringeverything.
or the persistenceof certain sectorsof maritimelife,rooted in
privilegedshorelinelocales. Look at the endurance of roads and
of the geographitraderoutes,and the surprisingunchangeability
cal boundariesof civilizations.
We findthe same degree of enduranceand survivalin the immense domain of culture.The magnificentbook of ErnstRobert
Curtius,8at last translatedinto French,is the studyof the cultural systemthatsustainedthe Latin civilizationof the Late Empire
and fourteenthcenturiesand the birth
rightup to the thirteenth
albeitselectivelydeformingthe systemas it
of nationalliteratures,
came to be overwhelmedby its heavyheritage.The cultureof the
intellectualelites is the same story.It lived by the same themes,
thestudyby
comparisons,maxims,and hackneyedtales.Similarly,
Lucien Febvre, Rabelais et le problmede l'incroyanceau XVIe sicle,9
soughtto delineatethe mentaltools of Frenchthoughtat the time

of Rabelais, the collectionof conceptsthat,long beforeand long
afterhim,determinedthe arts of living,thinking,and believing,
constrainedfromtheoutsettheintellectualadand whichstrongly
venturesof even thefreestspirits.The subjecttreatedbyAlphonse
is anotherexampleof the recentresearchof the French
Dupront10
historicalschool. In it, the idea of the crusade in the Westis analyzedfar beyond the fourteenthcentury,that is, far beyond the
"true"crusades,as a continuousattitudeof longuedure,which,
in endless repetition,traversedthe mostdiversesocieties,worlds,
and psychologies,and foundits last expressionamong the men of
the nineteenthcentury.In a neighboringfield,the book of Pierre
etSocit,11
Francastel,Peinture
pointsto thepersistence,beginning
8
Mittelalter,
Berne, 1948; French translation:
EuropischeLiteraturund lateinisches
etle MoyenAgelatin,Paris,P.U.F., 1956.
La littrature
europenne
9Paris,AlbinMichel,1943;3rded., 1969.
10Le
de Croisade.Essai de sociologiereligieuse,thse dactylographie,Sormythe
bonne.
11Peinture
d'uneespaceplastique,de la Renaissanceau
etSocit.Naissanceetdestruction
1951.
cubisme,
Lyon,Audin,
FernandBraudel
180
with the Florentinerenaissance,of a "geometric"cultural space

thatwas unchangedup to cubismand the intellectualpaintingof
the beginningof our century.The historyof the sciences is also
composed of constructeduniversesthat constitutesomewhatimperfectexplanatorymodels,but whichhave been regularlyagreed
upon forcenturies.Theyhavebeen Rejectedonlyafterlongservice.
The Aristotelianuniversepersistedvirtuallywithoutdissentup to
Galileo, Descartes,and Newton.It gave waythen to a profoundly
geometricaluniversewhichgavewayin turn,centurieslater,to the
Einsteinianrevolutions.12
The problem,in what is only seeminglya paradox, is to uncoverthe longuedurein the domain in whichhistoricalresearch
has been undeniablymostsuccessful,thatof the economy.Cycles,
structuralcrises maymask the regularitiesand contiintercycles,
thatis, of old
nuitiesof systems(some would call themcultures)13resist
habitsof thoughtand action,of frameworks
thatstrenuously
however
dying,
illogical.
Let us illustratethis withone easily analyzed example. Right
here in Europe, therewas an economic systemwithratherclear
rules,whichcan be characterizedin a fewlines. It was operative
more or less fromthe fourteenthto the eighteenthcentury,or to
be safe,up to 1750. For long centuries,economic activitydepended on demographicallyfragilepopulations,as maybe seen in the
14
greatdecline of 1350-1450 and no doubt also thatof 1650-1730.
For long centuries,circulationrequiredprimarilywaterand ships,
since everyland barrierconstitutedan obstacleand thereforewas
less desirablefortransport.European economic expansionswere
located in coastal zones, witha fewexceptionsthat confirmthe
rule (the Champagne fairswhichwerealreadydecliningat the beginningof thisperiod,theLeipzigfairsin theeighteenthcentury).
A furthercharacteristicof this systemwas the predominantrole
of merchantsand the prominentrole of the preciousmetals(gold,
12
I referthereaderto thefollowing
articlesthatmakesimilararguAdditionally,
of Europe,Historische
ments:OttoBrunneron thesocialhistory
CLXXVII,
Zeitschrift,
Annaleshistoriques
on humanism,
3; R. Bultmann
ibid.,CLXXVI,1; GeorgesLefebvre,
de la Rvolution
No. 114, 1949;F. Hrtungon enlightened
Histofranaise,
despotism,
rischeZeitschrift,
CLXXX, 1.
13Ren Courtin,La Civilisation

du Brsil,Paris,Librairiede Mdicis,
conomique
1941.
14Thisis trueforFrance.In
declinebeganat theend of the
Spain,demographic
sixteenth
century.
181
silver,even copper). The conflictsamong the metals were only

broughtto a partial end withthe decisivedevelopmentof credit
towardsthe end of the sixteenthcentury.In addition,therewas
the repeateddamage wroughtby seasonal agriculturalcrises,the
of the verybase of economic life.And finally,therewas
fragility
role of one or twoprincipalextertheapparentlydisproportionate
nal trade circuits:Levantine trade fromthe twelfthto sixteenth
centuriesand colonial tradein the eighteenth.
I have thus defined,or ratherinvoked,a widespreadview of
the traitsof merchantcapitalismin westernEurope,a longuedure
stage.Despite all the obvious changes over thisperiod, thesefour
or fivecenturiesshowa certaincoherencethatlasted untilthe upheavals of the eighteenthcenturyand of the industrialrevolution
wereconstant
in whichwe stillfindourselves.Some characteristics
otherconaround
amidst
while
all
remained
and
them,
unchanged
tinuities,a thousand rupturesand upheavals were transforming
theface of the world.
historicaltemporalities,the longuedure
Among the different
standsout as a troublesome,complicated,oftensurprisingfigure.
To admititintotheveryheartof our workwillnotbe an easy task,
a mere enlargementof fieldsof studyand exotic interests.Nor
willit be a simpledecisionin its favoralone. For the historian,to
includeit wouldbe to accepta change of styleand attitude,an upendingof waysof thinking,a new conceptof the social. It requires
almostimmobileones. Only
gettingto knowslowertemporalities,
when thathappens, and not before-I shall returnto this-will it
be legitimateto freeoneselffromthe inexorablemarchof historical time,to leave it behind,and thento returnto it withnew eyes,
withnew uncertainties,with new questions. In any case, on the
one can rethinkthe totalityof
basis of theselayersof slowhistory,
All the
as thoughit were located atop an infrastructure.
history,
of
all
the
thousands
of
thousands
all
the
explosions
stages,
stages,
of historicaltimecan be understoodfromthesedepths,fromthis
Everything
gravitatesaround it.
semi-immobility.
I do not claim,in whatI have said, to have definedthe professionof the historian,but ratherone conceptionof thisprofession.
Happy,and rathernaive,is he whowouldthink,afterthestormsof
recentyears,thatwe have discoveredthe trueprinciples,the clear
182
FernandBraudel
boundaries,the rightSchool. What is true is thatall the various

social scienceshave endlesslybeen transforming
themselves,both
as a resultof theirindividualinternaldevelopmentsand byvirtue
of themovementof thewhole.Historyis no exception.Calm is not
in sightand the hour of the discipleshas not struck.The moment
betweenthetimeof Charles-Victor
Langloisand CharlesSeignobos
and thatof Marc Bloch was long. But ever since Marc Bloch, the
wheelhas not ceased turning.For me,historyis the sum of all possible histories-a set of multipleskillsand pointsof view,those of
today,and tomorrow.
yesterday,
The onlymistake,in myview,would be to choose one of these
historiesto the exclusionof all the others.This wouldbe to repeat
thehistoricist
error.It willnotbe easy,as we know,to persuade all
historiansof this,and even less all social scientists,
giventhe many
relentlesseffortsto returnus to historyas it used to be written.
It will take much time and effortto get them to accept all these
changes and noveltiesas integralto the old label of history.And
yeta new historical"science"has been born,one thatcontinuesto
reflectupon and transformitself.In France,it goes back to 1900
withtheRevuede synthse
and since 1929 to Annales.The
historique
new historianshave tried to pay attentionto all the human sciences. That is whatis givingour professionsuch strangefrontiers
and such exoticqualities.Let us thenno longerthinkthatthe differencesof yesterdaystill formthe barriertheydid between the
historianand the social science observer.All the social sciences,
includinghistory,have mutuallycontaminatedeach other.They
are speaking,or can speak, the same language.
Whetherone is writingabout 1558 or the year of Our Lord
1958,if one wantsto understandthe world,one has to determine
the hierarchyof forces,currents,and individualmovements,and
thenput themtogetherto forman overallconstellation.Throughout, one mustdistinguishbetweenlong-termmovementsand momentarypressures,findingtheimmediatesourcesof thelatterand
the long-term
thrustof the former.The worldof 1558, so bleak in
France,was not producedjust out of the eventsof thatcharmless
year.The same is trueforthisdifficult
yearof 1958 in France.Each
"currentreality"is the conjoiningof movementswithdifferent
oriand
The
time
of
is
gins
rhythms.
today composed simultaneously
of the timeofyesterday,
of the daybeforeyesterday,
and of bygone
days.
183
II. THE QUARRELABOUTTHE SHORT-TERM

To be sure,theseveritiesare platitudes.Nonetheless,the social
scienceshave seldombeen temptedto writeabout lost time{temps
perdu).Not that one can formallyaccuse them,and say theyare
guiltyofnotacceptinghistoryor durationas necessarydimensions
of theirwork.They do in factseem to welcomeus. "Diachronie"
analysis,which restoresthe historicalelement,is never omitted
fromtheirtheoreticalpreoccupations.
But puttingthese curtsiesaside, one has to say thatthe social
sciences-bytaste,bydeep instinct,or possiblybytraining-tendalwaysto shyawayfromhistoricalexplanations.Theyavoid them,in
with"events,"
twovirtually
oppositeways.Theymaydeal excessively
or if you will,they"presentize"social research,thanksto an empiricalsociologythatdisdains any kind of historyand limitsitself
to short-term
data, to on-the-spotsurveys.Or theydispense with
a
via a "scienceof communications,"
timealtogetherbyinventing,
mathematicalformulaforvirtuallytimelessstructures.This latter
method,the latestone, is obviouslythe onlyone thatmightbe of
greatinterestto us. But the one centeringon eventshas enough
partisansthatwe oughtto examine each optionsuccessively.
We have indicatedour skepticismabout a purelyepisodic hisTo be fair,if such a vice exists,althoughhistoryis
toriography.
the favoritetargetof the critics,it is not the onlyguiltyparty.All
the social sciencesparticipatein thiserror.Economists,demographers,and geographersare split(althoughperhapsunevenlysplit)
betweenthoseworkingon the past and thoseworkingon thepresent. If theywerewise, theywould balance theirattention.This is
easy and necessaryfor the demographer.It is almost automatic
withgeographers(especiallyforthose in France who are brought
up in the traditionof Vidal de la Blache). It onlyrarelyhappens,
on the otherhand, witheconomists,who are imprisonedin a very
shortpresent.Theyseldomgo furtherback than 1945,and theygo
forwardin termsof plans and forecastsinto an immediatefuture
of several months,severalyears at the verymost. I suggestthat
all economic thoughtis trapped in this time bind. They tell the
historiansthatit is theirtask to studyperiods earlier than 1945,
in searchof ancienteconomies.But in thiswaytheydeprivethemselvesof a marvelousfieldforobservation,abandoningit of their
FernandBraudel
184
own volition,whilenot denyingitsvalue. The economisthas fallen

into the grooveof runningafteranalysisof the presenton behalf
of governments.
The outlook of ethnographersand ethnologistsis neitheras
clear cut nor as worrisome.Some of them,it is true,have insisted
upon the impossibilityand futilityof historywithinthe kind of
work theydo (although it should be said that an intellectualis
called upon to do the impossible).This authoritarianrejectionof
historyhas ill served Malinowskiand his disciples.In truth,how
can anthropologybe disinterestedin history?It is the same advenThere is no
tureof the mind,as Claude Lvi-Strausslikesto say.15
whichcannotbe seen to have felt
society,howeverunsophisticated,
the "clawsof the event,"nor is thereanysocietywhose historyhas
been entirelylost. It would be wrongto complainabout this matter,or to discuss it further.
On the otherhand, on the questionof the shortterm,we have
withthe sociologythatengages in surveys,surstrongdifferences
topicsin the domains of
veysthatdeal witha thousanddifferent
and
economics.
They are springingup in
sociology,psychology,
a
sort
of constantgamble on
as
elsewhere.
France,
They represent
the irreplaceablevalue of the present,its "volcanic"heat, its immenserichness.What pointis therein turningto historicaltimedevastatedbyitssilences,reconstructed?
impoverished,
simplified,
The word to be underlinedhere is reconstructed.But is the past
reallyso dead, as reconstructedas one claims? To be sure, the
historianis too readyto discernwhatis essentialin timegone by.
As Henri Pirennesaid, he easilydecides whichare the "important
events,"meaning"thosewhichhave had consequences."This is an
obviousand dangeroussimplification.
But whatwould thevoyager
in the presentnot give to be able to have some distancefromthe
present,to see it froma futurepoint in time?He mightthen unmask or simplifypresent-dayhappenings that are confused,unreadablebecause too encumberedbygesturesand minorfeatures.
Claude Lvi-Straussclaims thatan hour'sconversationwithone of
Plato's contemporarieswould tell him more than all our lectures
on the classics about the coherence,or incoherence,of the culI entirelyagree. But thatis because he
ture of GreekAntiquity.16
has been listeningformany,manyyearsto all those Greekvoices
15
structurelle,
Anthropologie
op. cit.,p. 31
16
"Diogene couch," Les TempsModernes,no. 195, p. 17.
185
saved fromoblivion.The historianpreparedhis trip.One hour in

the Greece of todaywould teach him nothing,or nextto nothing,
coherencesor incoherences.
about present-day
What is more,the researcherworkingon the presentwill only
of theexistingstructures
be able to getto the "precise"framework
if he too reconstructs,
suggestsexplanatoryhypotheses,refusesto
acceptat facevalue the realityhe perceivesbut rathertruncatesit,
transcendsit,in orderto geta handle on it-all waysof reconstructing it. I don'tbelievethata sociologicalphotographof the present
is "truer"than a historicalportrayalof the past, especiallyto the
degree thatit distancesitselffromreconstruction.
of
has stressedtheimportanceofunfamiliarity,
PhilippeAries17
theunexpectedin historicalexplanation.In studyingthesixteenth
one comesup againstsomethingstrange,strangeto you,a
century,
man ofthetwentieth
century.The questionbeforeyouis howto exBut I wouldsuggestthatsurprise,unfamiliarplain thisdifference.
these
remotenessgreatwaysof knowing-are no less necessary
ity,
to understandthatwhichsurroundsyou,thatwhichis so close that
you cannot perceiveit clearly.Live in London fora year and you
will not knowmuch about England. But, by makingthe comparisons,you will suddenlycome to understandsome of the deepest,
ofFrance,thosewhichyouneverknew
mostspecificcharacteristics
preciselybecause you knewthem.So, too, the past is the unfamiliar bymeans of whichone can understandthe present.
So historiansand social scientistscan eternallypass the ball
back and forthbetweenthe dead documentand the too livingtesbetweenthedistantpast and thetoo close present.I do not
timony,
thinkthisis the fundamentalquestion.The presentand the past
can be betterseen in theirreciprocallights.And if one observes
themonlyin the immediatepresent,one's attentionwillbe drawn
to thatwhichmovesquickly,whichglitterswhethervaluableor not,
or whichhasjust changed or made noise or is easilydiscovered.A
wholeepisodicexplanation,as tediousas anyofferedbyhistorians,
can ensnaretheobserverin a hurry-theethnographerwho spends
threemonthswitha small Polynesianpeople, the industrialsociologistwho offersus the clichsof his latestsurvey,or who thinks
that,witha cleverquestionnaireand cross-tabulations
using per-
17Les
Paris,Plon, 1954, esp. p. 298 ff.
Tempsde Vhistoire,
FernandBraudel
186
foratedcards,he can captureperfectly

a social mechanism.
The
socialis morecunningpreythanthat.
To be truthful,
be interested
in
whyshouldwehumanscientists
theresultsofa vastand well-done
on
the
of
survey
region Paris,18
whichdetailedtherouteofa younggirlfromherhomein the16th
arrondissement
to her musicteacherand to Sciences-Po?
We get a
ofagronomy
oran
pretty
mapoutofit.Buthad shebeena student
of
these
been
would
have
adept water-skiing triangular
trips
quite
I am delightedto see a mapshowingthedistribution
different.
of
thehomesof theemployees
of a largefirm.ButifI don'thavea
of
their
and ifthetimebetweenthetwo
map
previousdistribution,
is notsufficiently
surveys
greatto allowone to see thisas partofa
is
what
the
whichthe
largechange,
questionweareasking,without
serveat
surveyis a wasteof time?Surveysforthesakeof surveys
mostto accumulatesomedata.We don'tevenknowthatipsofacto
thesedata willbe usefulforfuture
research.Let us bewareof art
forart'ssake.
I doubtthata studyofa city,
no matter
whichone,can
Similarly,
be theobjectofa sociological
as
was
done
for
Auxerre19
or
enquiry,
Viennein Dauphin,20
withoutinserting
it in thehistorical
longterm.Anycity-a societywithconflicts,
withitscrises,itsruptures,
itsbreakdowns,
itsinevitable
hastobe placedwithinthe
schemingcontext
ofthecountryside
thatsurrounds
it,and also withinthose
of
which
the historianRichard
cities,
archipelagos neighboring
of
was
one
the
first
to
describe.
It
Hpke
maythusbe inscribedin
theunderlying
oftenovermoreorlesslongperiodsof
movements,
time,whichgavelifeto thiscomplex.Does itmakeno difference,
is it not ratheressential,to discernwhethera particularurbanruralexchange,a particular
industrial
or commercial
competition
is something
verynewin thefullnessof itsbloomor something
whether
itis a resurgence
ofthedistantpast
beginningto wither,
or a monotonous
returnto theusualpattern?
Let us concludewitha maximthatLucienFebvre,duringthe
lasttenyearsofhislife,repeatedall thetime:"History,
scienceof
106.
18P. Chombart de Lauwe, Paris et V

agglomration
parisienne,Paris, P.U.F., 1952, I,
19Suzenne Frre& Charles
Auxerre
en 1950.
Bettelheim,Unevillefranaisemoyenne.
No. 17, 1951.

Paris,ArmandColin,Cahiersdes SciencesPolitiques,
20PierreClment& Natalie
Xydias,Vienne-sur-l-Rhne.
Sociologied'unevillefranaise.
No. 71, 1955.

Paris,ArmandColin,Cahiersdes SciencesPolitiques,
187
thepast,scienceof thepresent."Is nothistory,

thedialecticof temporalities,an explanationin its wayof the social in all its reality?
And thereforeof the present?Its lesson in thisdomain is to warn
us about theevent:Do not thinkonlyin the shortterm.Do notbelievethatonlythoseactorswho make noise are themostauthentic.
There are otherswho matterbut who are silent.But did we not all
knowthisalready?
HI. COMMUNICATION AND SOCIAL MATHEMATICS
It was perhapsan errorto spend so muchtimeon the agitated
frontierof the shortterm.To tell the truth,the debate going on
theredoes nothave muchimportance,or at leastproceedswithout
any useful novel idea. The criticaldebate lies elsewhere-among
our neighborswho are sweptawayby the newestexperimentsof
thesocial sciences,underthedouble label of"communication"
and
mathematics.
It'snotgoingto be easy to plead thecase thatno social analysis
can avoid historicaltimewhenwe'redealing witheffortsthat,apparentlyat least,situatethemselvescompletelyoutsideof time.
In anycase, ifthe readerwishesto followour argumentin this
discussion(whetherin agreementor not),he wouldbe welladvised
to be readyto weighforhimselfeach of the termsof a vocabulary
that,althoughcertainlynot entirelynew,has been reworkedin the
discussionstakingplace at thismoment.We have nothingwe need
to repeat,of course,about "events"or the "longuedure,"nor much
to sayabout "structures,"
althoughthewordand the conceptis not
Nor wouldit
untouchedbyuncertaintiesand currentdiscussions.21
be usefulto lingertoo longoverthewords"synchrony"
and "diachTheir
is
their
role
in
clear,
meaning
although
any concrete
rony."
social analysisis less easy to establishthanit mightseem. In effect,
in the language of history(as I understandit),theremayneverbe
An instantaneousmomentof time,in whichall
perfectsynchrony.
temporalitiesare suspended,is a virtualabsurdityor, whichis alcontrived.And whichis almostthesame
mostthesame,extremely
be
no
there
can
simpledescentdown theslopes of time.The
thing,
21See the
surlesStructures,
Vie Sectionde l'cole pratiquedes Hautes
Colloque
1958.
rsum,
tudes,typewritten
188
FernandBraudel
the
onlyconceivable
thingis tomakea seriesofdescents,
following
and
innumerable
rivers
of
time.
multiple
Thesefewreminders
and warnings
forthemoment.
willsuffice
But we need to be moreexplicitabout the conceptsof "unconscioushistory,"
These neces"models,"and "socialmathematics."
remarks
are
in
or
rather
will
be
a
linked,
linked,
sary
problematic
commonto all thesocialsciences.
"Unconscious
of theunconis, of course,thehistory
history"
sciouspartsof social reality."Men maketheirhistory,
but they
do notmakeitas theywish."22
ThisformulaofMarxclarifies,
but
doesnotexplain,theproblem.
In fact,undera newname,itis once
oftheepisodagaintheproblemoftheshortterm,of"microtime,"
ic thatis beingposed here.Men havealwayshad theimpression,
in livingtheirlives,thattheyunderstand
whatis happeningdayby
as so many
day.Is thisconsciousand clearaccountbadlymistaken,
historians
havefora longtimeasserted?Linguistics
once thought
itcouldderiveeverything
fromwords.History
itcoulddethought
riveitall fromevents.Morethanone contemporary
commentator
has beenreadyto believethatall is explainedbytheYaltaor Potsdamagreements,
or Sakiet-SidibytheaccidentsofDien-Bien-Phu
or
the
of
the
another
kindofevent,
Youssef, by launching
sputnik,
in itsway.Let us thusadmitthatthereexistsat
equallyimportant
a certaindistancea social unconscious.Let us furthermore
concede forthetimebeingthatthisunconscious
be consideredscienricher
than
the
surface
to
whichour eyesare
tifically
shimmering
used. Scientifically
richermeanssimpler,
withwiderimplications,
ifharderto uncover.
Butthedistinction
betweenclearsurfaceand
obscuredepths,betweennoiseand silence,is difficult
to drawand
uncertain.Let us add that"unconscious"
which
halfthe
historytimeconcernscyclicalphasesbutis parexcellence
aboutstructural
time-is clearlyperceivedmorefrequently
thanone is readyto admit.Each ofus has thesensethat,beyondhis ownlife,therelies
a massivehistoricalpastwhosepowerand thrustshe recognizes
itmustbe said,thanitslawsand direction.
Andthishistory
better,
didnotstart
economic
for
(in
justyesterday
history example),even
ifwhatis happeningtodayis morevividto us. The revolution,
for
itis a revolution
ofthemind,hasconsisted
inconfronting
thishalf22Cited Claude Lvi-Strauss,
structurelle,
by
Anthropologie
op. cit.,pp. 30-31.'
189
darkness,of givingit an ever largerrole beside, even in place of,

the event.
Historyis not the onlydisciplinepursuingthesenew ways.On
it has been merelyfollowingin the path of the social
the contrary,
sciences,adapting forits use the new instrumentsof knowledge
and researchthathavebeen constructed.Illustratingthispointare
the "models,"sometimesmore or less perfected,sometimesstill
artisanal.Models are nothingbut hypotheses,explanatorysystems
firmlylinkedin the formof an equation or a function:x=y,or x
causes y. A neveroccurs withoutB accompanyingit, and strict,
constantrelationsexistbetweenthe two.Once we have a carefully
establishedmodel,one can applyit across timeand space to other
social spheressimilarto the one thathas been studiedand on the
basis ofwhichthemodelwas created.This givesthemodel a recurringvalidity.
thetemperThese explanatorysystems
reflecting
varyinfinitely,
the
researcherof
or
the
the
calculations,
ament,
qualobjectives
itativeor quantitative,simple or complex,mechanical or statistical. This lastdistinctionI owe to Lvi-Strauss.He calls mechanical
a model drawn fromdirectlyobserved reality,small-scalereality
dealingwithsmallhumangroups(such as thosecreatedbyethnologistsabout primitivesocieties).For vastsocieties,withlarge populations,we are obligedto findaverages,and thereforewe use statisticalmethods.But these sometimesdubious definitionsmatter
little!
The crucial point forme, beforewe may establisha common
programforthesocial sciences,is to spell out the role and thelimWe must
itsofmodels,whichsome userstendto inflateexcessively.
in
idea
of
the
invoke
thereforeonce again
multipletemporalities,
relationthistimeto models; forthe significanceand the explanatoryvalue of models depends rathercloselyon the duration to
whichtheyrefer.
To illustratethis more clearly,let us look at some particular
historicalmodels,23-thatis, models inventedby historians,crude
and rudimentarymodels, seldom developed rigorouslyby true
scientificmethodsand neverexpected to achieve a revolutionary
mathematicallanguage- stilland all, models of a sort.
231am
havebeenusingandthat
tolookatsome"models"thateconomists
tempted
wehavebeenimitating.
FernandBraudel
190
abovecommercial
We mentioned
betweenthefourcapitalism
teenthandeighteenth
centuries.
Thisis one ofthemodelsthatone
findsin Marx'swritings.
It'sreallyonlycompletely
validfora given
of
over
a
time
family societies,
particular
period,evenifit opens
thedoorto all sortsofextrapolations.
A somewhatdifferent
modelis sketchedin mybook,24about
a cycleof economicdevelopment
in Italiancitiesbetweenthesixteenthand eighteenth
whichweresuccessively
centersof
centuries,
of
and thenspecializedin banking.This
commerce, "industries,"
lastactivity
was theslowestto comeintofullbloomand theslowest to disappear.This modelwas morelimitedin scope thanthe
one dealingwithall ofcommercial
butitwastherefore
capitalism,
easier
to
extend
it
to
other
moments
of
timeand space.It
perhaps
notesa phenomenon
but
(somemightcall ita dynamicstructure,
all historical
structures
are to somedegreedynamic)thatcan recurin manydifferent
and is easyto recognize.Perhaps
situations,
thisis also trueofthemodelsuggested
byFrankSpoonerand me25
the
cen(before,
concerning history
during,andafterthesixteenth
tury)of thepreciousmetals-gold,silver,and copper-and credit,
thatflexiblesubstitute
forthemetals.Theyare all playersin the
of one affecting
the "strategy"
of each of
market,the "strategy"
theothers.Itwouldnotbe difficult
toapplythismodelbeyondthe
and exceptionally
turbulent
sixteenth
privileged
centurythatwe
Have
not
some
economists
tried
aftera fashion
analyzed.
already
to verify
theold quantitative
of
for
theory money contemporary
countries?26
underdeveloped
Butthepossibilities
ofextension
in timeofall thesemodelsare
smallindeedcomparedto theone conceivedbytheyoungAmerican historical
He was struckby
sociologist,
SigmundDiamond.27
thedoublelanguageof thedominantclass of greatAmericanfinanciersin theepochofPierpont
Morgan.Therewasonelanguage
usedwithintheclassand anotheroutsideit.Thislatterwasin fact
an apologiavis--vis
thesuccessofthefipublicopinion,
justifying
nancieras thetypicaltriumph
oftheself-made
man,thenecessary
24La Mditerrane
et le mondemditerranen
Vpoquede PhilippeII, Paris,Armand
Colin,1949,p. 264 ff.
bLes Mtauxmontaires
etl conomie
du XVIesicle.Rapportsau Congrsinternational
deRome,1955,IV,233-264.
26AlexandreChabert,Structure
etthorie
montaire,
Paris,ArmandColin,
conomique
Pubi,du Centred'tudesconomiques,1956.
27The
RegulationoftheAmericanBusinessman,
Cambridge,MA, 1955.
191
conditionof the country'sprosperity.He saw in this double language thehabitualreactionofanydominantclass thatsees assaults
on its prestigeand threatsto its privileges.To defendthemselves,
theyseek to identifytheirfatewiththatof the societyor the nation,theirprivateinterestwiththepublicinterest.Diamond would
similarlyexplain the evolutionof the idea of dynastyor empire,of
the Britishdynastyor the Roman Empire.This kind of model is
clearlyapplicableacross the centuries.It presumescertainspecific
social conditions,but historyis fullof them.It is trueovera much
longertime-periodthan the othermodels I have discussed,but at
the same timeit deals withmoreprecise,more specificrealities.
At the limit,as the mathematicianswould put it, this kind of
modelis close to thatof thosepopular models,thealmosttimeless
To say theyare almosttimeless
ones of the social mathematicians.
means in factthattheymovealong the darkand unexploredpathwaysof theverylonguedure.
The various accounts we have given are a quite inadequate
introductionto the science and theoryof models. In this field,
historiansare not at all in the avant-garde.Their models are at
best bundles of explanations.Our colleagues are much more ambitiousand advanced in theirresearch,tryingto make use of the
communication,and qualitativemathelanguage of information,
matics.Theirmerit-whichis considerable-is to welcomeintotheir
a language howeverthat,
fieldthesubtlelanguage of mathematics,
can escape our controland run
givenevena moment'sinattention,
where!
God
knows
with
Information,communication,
itself,
away
and qualitativemathematicsall can be placed under the rather
So itis therethat
wide umbrellaof the term,"social mathematics."
we mustshineour lantern,to the degree thatwe can.
is at least threedifferent
Social mathematics28
languageswhich
have
be
others.
Mathematicians
maybe combined,and theremay
not yetexhaustedtheirimagination.In any case, theredoes not
exista singlemathematics,or at least thisis the claim. "One canbutan algebra,a geometry"(Th.
notspeak ofalgebraor geometry,
does
not
which
Guilbaud),
simplifyour task,or theirs.Three lanthat
of
then:
necessaryfacts(somethingis given,something
guages
28 See
especially Claude Lvi-Strauss,BulletinInternationaldes SciencesSociales,
theentirehighly
issue,titled:"MathUNESCO,VI, 4, and moregenerally
interesting
ematicsand theSocialSciences."
192
FernandBraudel
else followsfromit), which is the domain of traditionalmathematics; that of random facts(since Pascal), whichis the domain
of probabilities;and finallythat of conditionalfacts,neitherdeterminednor random,but subjectto certainconstraints,to rules
of the game, such as the game "strategy"of Von Neumann and
thiswinningstrategywhichhas developed beyond
Morgenstern,29
the bold initialprinciplesof its founders.Game strategy,
by utilof
calculations
the
sets,
izing
groups,
probabilities,opens
way to
mathematics.
It
becomes
to
"qualitative"
possible proceed fromobservationsto mathematicalformulaswithouthavingto go via the
difficultpath of measurementsand long statisticalcalculations.
One can proceed directlyfromsocial analysisto mathematicalformulas,shall we sayto a calculatingmachine.
Of course,we have to prepare the task of our machine which
cannot accept or manipulateeverythingthat may be fed into it.
It is indeed because of real machines,of the rules by whichthey
functionto permitcommunications
in the most materialsense of
the word,that a science of informationwas inventedand developed. The authorof thisarticleis by no means a specialistin this
difficultdomain. The search going on to constructa translation
machine,whichhe has followedwithinterest,if distantly,throws
him,as it does others,into the depths of reflection.Nonetheless,
two factsseem clear: (1) such machines,such mathematicalpossibilities,do exist; and (2) we have to prepare the social part of
social mathematics,
whichare no longeronlyour older traditional
mathematics-curvesof prices,wages,and birthrates.
So, if the new mathematicaloperationsare oftentoo difficult
forus, the preparationof social realityforthisuse- how partsare
linkedtogether,
howtheyare separated-is somethingthatrequires
our close attention.The priortreatmentheretoforehas almostalwaysbeen the same: choose a restrictedunit of observation,such
as a "primitive"
tribeor a singledemographiccase, so thatwe can
examine almosteverything
at firsthand. Then we proceed to find
thecorrelationsbetweentheelementswe havesingledout,all their
possible interactions.Such rigorouslydeterminedrelationsoffer
us the veryequations fromwhichthe mathematiciansthen draw
theirconclusionsand possible extensioninto a modelthatsummarizes everything,
or rathertakesaccountof everything.
29The
Theoryof Gamesand EconomicBehavior,Princeton,1944. See the brilliant
reviewbyJeanFourasti,
No. 51, Oct. 1951.
Critique,
193
researchquestionsare thus opened up.

A thousanddifferent
useful than a long exposition.Claude
be
more
One example will
Lvi-Straussoffershimselfas an excellentguide, whomwe should
follow.Let us look at one sectorof his research,thatof the science
of communication.30
"In everysociety,communicationsoperate at three different

levels"-women,goods and services,and messages.31Let us grant
levelsdifferent
thatthereexistat thesedifferent
languages,butlanguages all the same. So should we not have the rightto treatthem
as languages,or even as thelanguage,and hence to utilizein their
analysisthe amazing progressof linguistics,or more precisely,of
phonemics,which "cannot fail to play the same renovatingrole
vis--visthe social sciences thatnuclear physics,forexample,has
That is a big statement,
playedin the fieldof the exact sciences?"32
but sometimessuch statementsare justified.Like historythatwas
trappedby the event,linguisticswas trapped by words (the relation of wordsto the object,the historicalevolutionof words)but
could escape via the phonologicalrevolution.Beneath the word,
linguisticsattached itselfto the sound elementwe call the photo meaningbut attentiveto location,
neme,whichwas indifferent
to the sounds surroundingit, to the groupingof words,to infrato the entirerealityof language thatwas unphonemicstructures,
On the basis of the severaldozens
unconscious.
was
derneath,that
ofphonemesthatwe thenfindin all theworld'slanguages,thenew
mathematicaltasktookform.At thatpoint,linguistics,or at leasta
partof linguistics,escaped overthe past twentyyearsthe worldof
the social sciencesto cross overthe "mountainpass into the exact
sciences."
To extendtheconceptoflanguage to theelementarystructures
of kinship,of myths,of ceremonies,of economic exchanges,that
but salutarymountainpass, is the minor
is, to locate thisdifficult
miracleachievedbyClaude Lvi-Strauss.He did thisfirstof all for
matrimonialexchange,thatprimallanguage essentialforhuman
to thepointthatthereexistsno society,primitive
communications,
or not, in whichincest,marriagewithinthe narrowfamilyunit,
is not forbidden.Ergo, a language. In thislanguage,he soughtto
30This entirediscussion is drawn fromhis recentbook,
structurale,
Anthropologie
op. cit.
31Ibid., 326.
p.
Ibid., p. 39.
FernandBraudel
194
finda basic elementcorrespondingto the phoneme,this"atomic"

elementof kinship,whichour guide uncoveredin his doctoraldissertationin 1949.33This unit in its simplestformis the man, the
wife,the child,and the maternaluncle of the child. On the basis
of this quadrangular unit,and looking at all the knownsystems
of marriageamong primitivepeoples (and theyare numerous),
the mathematicianscan calculate the possible combinationsand
results.With the assistance of the mathematicianAndr Weill,
Lvi-Strausssucceeded in translatinginto mathematicaltermsthe
anthropologist'sobservations.The derivedmodel has to test the
validity,the stabilityof the system,and indicatethe solutionsthat
the latterimplies.
It is clear whatthe objectivewas in thisresearch-togo beyond
surfaceobservationto reach the realm of unconscious or barely
conscious elements,to reduce such realityinto small units,small
identicalbrush strokes,whose exact relationsone could analyze
withprecision."It is at this [I would call it myselfa certainkind
of] microsociologicallevelthatone mayhope to perceivethe most
generallaws of structure,as the linguistdiscovershis at the infraphonemiclevel and the physicistat the inframolecularlevel,that
is at the level of the atom."34This game can be played,of course,
in manydifferent
directions.So, whatis moredidacticthan to see
with
Lvi-Strausspursue it, thistime,withmythsand, amusingly,
cuisine(anotherlanguage). Indeed, he reducesmythsto a seriesof
and reduces the language of cookelementarycells, the mythemes,
intogustemes.
In each case, he is in searchof
books (light-heartedly)
deep, unconsciouslevels.I am not aware,whenI am speaking,of
the phonemesI am using.Neitheram I normallyconscious,when
I am at the dinner table, of "gustemes,"if such thingsexist. But
each time,thisgame of subtle,exact relationskeeps me company.
Would thelastwordofsociologicalresearchthenbe to locate these
simple mysteriousrelationsin everylanguage, to translatethem
into a Morse code, thatis, the universalmathematicallanguage?
That seems to be the ambitionof the new social mathematics.But
mayI say,withoutsmiling,thatthisis an entirelydifferent
story/
history?
33Les structures
struclmentaires
de la parent.Paris,P.U.F., 1949. See Anthropologie
turale,
pp. 47-62.
34
structurale,
Anthropologie
op. cit.,pp. 42-43.
195
Let us nowreintroduceduration.I have said thatmodelshavea

varyinglife-span:theyare valid forthe timeof the realitytheyare
talkingabout. And, forthesocial observer,thistimeis primordial,
foreven more importantthan the deep structuresof life are its
momentsof rupture,its brusque or slow deteriorationunder the
pressures.
impactof contradictory
I have comparedmodels to ships. Once the ship is built,what
interestsme is to launchit,to see ifit floats,thento make itsail, as
I wish,up and down thewatersof time.A shipwreckalwaysconstitutesthe mostsignificantmoment.For example,the explanation
that Frank Spooner and I gave about the relationsbetween the
variouspreciousmetalsdoes not seem to workbeforethe fifteenth
century.Before that time, the competitionbetween the metals
seems to have been so violentthatwhathappened in laterperiods
did not seem to occur then.Well,in thatcase, we needed to find
it is necessaryto understandwhy,thistimegoout why.Similarly,
to the eighteenthcentury,navigationwithour
in
time
forward
ing
thenimpossible,giventhe
too simpleship becomes firstdifficult,
abnormalexpansion of credit.I believe thatresearchmustceaselesslymovefromsocial realityto the model, thenback again, and
so on, bya seriesof alterations,of patientlyrenewedvoyages.The
and an ina wayto explain thestructure,
modelis thussuccessively
strumentto test,compare,and verifythe solidityand durabilityof
a givenstructure.If I wereto createa model based on the present
day,I would checkit immediatelyagainst thisreality,thenpush it
backwardsin time,if possible to its momentof birth.Once thisis
done,I could estimateitsprobablelife-spanup to thenextrupture,
in termsoftheconcomitantmovementof othersocial realities.Unless,usingit as a wayof makingcomparisons,I circulatedit across
timeand space, lookingforotherrealitiesthatI could illuminate
thanksto usingthe model.
Am I wrongto thinkthatthe models of qualitativemathematics, such as we have seen up to now,35would not lend themselves
to such voyagesin time,because theytravelalong a singleone of
thatof the verylonguedure,which
the innumerabletemporalities,
knowsno chance occurrences,no cyclicalphases, no ruptures?I
turnonce again to Lvi-Strauss,because his usages in thisdomain
351am
suchas usedingamestratofqualitative
mathematics,
speakingspecifically
thekindof classicalmodelsthateconomists
egy.I wouldhaveto discussdifferently
elaborate.
196
FernandBraudel
the clearest,themostdeeplyrootseem to me the mostintelligent,

ed in social experience,fromwhichall analysismuststartand then
return.Let us note thathe repeatedlydiscusses phenomena that
moveextremelyslowly,ifat all. All kinshipsystemspersistbecause
human life is not possible over a certain level of consanguinity,
and thusitrequiressmallgroupsto open themselvesto theoutside
worldin order to survive.Hence, the incesttaboo is a constantof
the longuedure.Myths,whichdevelop slowly,also correspondto
structures
In collectingtheOedipus
thathavean extremelongevity.
one
doesn't
to
decide
is the oldest, since the
have
which
myths,
is
to
look
at
the
of
variation
and therewithto illuproblem
range
minatetheunderlyingdeep articulationsthatgovernthem.But let
us suppose thatour colleague would be interestednot in a myth
but in theimagesand successiveinterpretations
of "Machiavellianism,"thathe was interestedin thebasic elementsofa rathersimple
doctrine,whichwas widespreadfollowingits initialexpressionin
thesixteenthcentury.In thiscase, he wouldbe facedwithruptures
and upheavalsin theverystructureof Machiavellianism,
since this
systemdoes nothave thequasi-eternaltheatricalsolidityofa myth.
It reactedto the eventsand the twists,the multiplevicissitudesof
In a word,itdid notfinditselfon thetranquiland monotohistory.
nous roads of the longuedure.The procedure that Lvi-Strauss
suggestsoflookingformathematizedstructuresis notlocated only
at the microsociologicallevel,but also at the meeting-point
of the
small
and
the
infinitely
verylonguedure.
In point of fact,is revolutionary
qualitativemathematicscondemned to followonlythe paths of the verylonguedure}If so, we
shall findthat this restrictedgame limitsus to truthsthat are a
bitthoseof eternalman. Elementarytruths,aphorismsof popular
wisdom,malcontentsmightcall them.We mightreplythattheyare
essentialtruths,truthsthatilluminateonce again theverybases of
social life.But thatis not the wholematterunder discussion.
I do not in factbelieve thatsuch attempts,or analogous ones,
cannot be conducted outside the verylonguedure.The data for
qualitativesocial mathematicsare not numbersbut relationships,
relationsthathave to be ratherrigorouslydefinedto be able to assignthema mathematicalsign,so thatone can studyall the mathematicalpossibilitiesof these signs,forgetting
about the social realities theyrepresent.The value of the conclusionsdepends on
the value of the initialobservation,the choices thatisolate the es-
197
sentialelementsof theobservedphenomenonand determinetheir

relationswithinthisphenomenon.It becomes understandablewhy
social mathematicsprefersthe kind of models Lvi-Strausscalls
mechanical,thatis, derivedfromsmall groups in whicheach individual is, so to speak, directlyobservableand in whicha very
homogeneoussocial life allows one to define with certaintythe
human relations,whichare simpleand concrete,and do not vary
much.
So-called statisticalmodels,on theotherhand, deal withlarge,
complex societies in which observationscan be made only by
meansofaverages,thatis, usingtraditionalmathematics.But once
one establishestheseaverages,nothingthenpreventsthe observer
at thelevelof groupsratherthanof individuals,
fromestablishing,
the basic relationsto whichwe referredand whichare necessary
forthe elaborationof qualitativemathematics.To myknowledge,
therehave been no attemptsof thiskind. But we are at the early
stagesof thiskind of work.For the moment,whetherin psycholoeveryonehas been workingin the
gy,economics,or anthropology,
waysI definedwithreferenceto Lvi-Strauss.But qualitativesocial
mathematicswill not have shownits mettleuntilit has been used
to analyze a modern society,withits tangled problemsand mulof life.Let's suppose thatthisadventurewill tempt
tiplerhythms
one of our mathematicalsociologists.Let us suppose furtherthat
it bringsabout a necessaryrevisionof the methodshithertoused
by the new mathematics,that theyno longerlimitthemselvesto
whatI shall call thistimethe toolonguedure.They would have to
of life,all its movements,all its temporalirediscoverthe diversity
ties,all itsruptures,all itsvariations.
IV. THE HISTORIAN'S TIME, THE SOCIOLOGIST'S TIME
Aftera forayinto the land of timelesssocial mathematics,I
returnto time,to duration.And as an incorrigiblehistorian,I remainastonishedthatsociologistshavebeen able to escape it.But it
is because theirtimeis not mytime:it is muchless imperious,also
less concrete,and neverat the heart of theirproblemsand their
reflections.
The historianin factneverdepartsfromhistoricaltime.Time
sticksto his thoughtlike soil to the gardener'sspade. Of course
FernandBraudel
198
he maydream of escapingit. Amidstthe anguish of 1940, Gaston

Roupnel36wrote some words whichmake everyhistorianwince.
A similarthoughtis to be found earlier in the writingsof Paul
historian:"Time is nothingin itself;objecLacombe, a first-rate
tively,it is merelyan idea of ours."37But are these reallyescapes?
I myself,duringmyrathergloomycaptivity,
struggledmightilyto
of
those
difficult
the
chronicle
years (1940-1945). Refusescape
ing eventsand the time of those eventswas a way of movingto
the margins,to shelter,to look at thingsfromfurtheraway,judge
thembetter,and not believe too much in them.One could move
fromthe shorttermto the somewhatless shorttermand finallyto
verylong time(ifthisexists,itmustbe thetimeof thesages). Then
once again
whenyougetthere,youcan stopand look at everything
around
and reconstruct,
yourself.Such
turning
seeing everything
an operationhas whatit takesto tempta historian.
But thesesuccessiveshiftsin perspectivedo not trulymoveone
outside the time of the world,the time of history,imperiousbeof theroand because it flowsat theveryrhythm
cause irreversible
tationof the earth.In fact,the temporalitiesthatwe differentiate
are bound together.It is not so muchdurationthatis the creation
of our mind,but the splittingup of this duration.And yetthese
come togetheragain at the end of our work.The longue
fragments
and eventsfittogethereasily,for
dure,cyclicalphases {conjoncture),
theyall are measurementson thesame scale. Hence, to entermentallyintoone of thesetemporalitiesis to be partofall of them.The
philosopher,who paysattentionto the subjectiveelementinternal
to the conceptof time,neverfeelsthe weightof historicaltime,a
concrete,universaltimesuch as the timeof thecyclicalphases that
ErnestLabrousse laysout in thebeginningof his book.38He is like
a voyager,alwaystrue to himself,who travelsthe wholeworldand
insistson the same constraints,whateverbe the countryin which
he has landed, or the politicalrgimeand social orderto whichhe
is submitted.
For the historian,everything
begins and ends in time,a mathematicaltime,a demiurge,easy to mock,time thatis externalto
men, "exogenous"as the economistswould say,a time thatpush36Histoireetdestin,Paris: BernardGrasset, 1943,
passim,esp. p. 169.
37Revuede
1900, p. 32.
synthse
historique,
38La crisede l'conomie
franaise la veillede la Rvolution
franaise,Paris, P.U.F.,
1944,Introduction.
199
es us forward,constrainsus, sweeps awayour individualtimesof

manyvarieties-yes,theworld'simperioustime.
The sociologists,of course,do not accept this too simpleconcept. They are much closer to the "dialectic of duration"as expounded by Gaston Bachelard.39Social timeis simplyone dimension of thesocial realityone is studying.It is internalto thisreality
as it mightbe to an individual,one sign among othersthatit utilizes, one more propertythat marksit out as a particularreality.
The sociologistis not the least limitedby this manipulabletime,
whichhe can divide up, freeze,allow to flowagain, as he wishes.
Historicaltimelends itselfmuchless well,as I previouslysaid, to a
and diachrony.It does notreally
flexibledouble game ofsynchrony
allow one to thinkof lifeas a mechanismone can freezein order
to present,as one wishes,an immobilepicture.
This disagreementis morefundamentalthanit mayseem. The
sociologist'stimeis simplynotours.The deep structureof our professionis averseto it. Our timeis a measure,like the economist's
time.When a sociologisttells us that a structurecontinuallydewe readilyaccept the explastroysitselfonlyto be reconstructed,
nationwhichhistoricalobservationin factconfirms.But we want
to know,in line withour customarydemands,the exact duration
of these positiveand negativemovements.Economic cycles,the
ebb and flowof materiallife,are measurable.A social structural
crisismustalso be placed in time,throughtime,and situateitself
both absolutelyand withinthe contextof concomitantstructural
movements.What is of mostinterestto the historianis the crisscrossingof these movements,theirinteraction,and the moments
when theybreak down. These are all thingsthat can only be establishedwithinthe uniformtime of the historians,the general
measureof all these phenomena,and not in multitudinoussocial
timesparticularto each of thesephenomena.
A historianmust formulatesuch contrarianremarks,rightly
almost
even whenhe reads the workof a sympathetic,
or wrongly,
Did
not
a
fraternalsociologistsuch as Georges Gurvitch.
philoso"forced
who
him
as
someone
define
historyupon
pher40recently
sociology"?Yet, even in his work,an historianrecognizesneither
39
Dialectiquede la dure,Paris. P.U.F.,2nd ed., 1950.
40 Gilles Granger,vnementet structure
dans les sciencesde l'homme,Cahiers de
de ScienceEconomiqueAppliqu,SrieM,No. 1,41-42.
l'Institut
200
FernandBraudel
his durationsnor his temporalities.The vast social edifice(shall

we call it the model) is organized by Gurvitchon fiveessential
architecturalpillars:social strata,small groups(sociabilits),
social
times.41
This
last
that
of
temgroups,global societies,
scaffolding,
poralities,is the newest,and thelast to be constructed,almostlike
an afterthought.
The temporalitiesof Georges Gurvitchare multiple.He describesa whole series of them:the timeof slow-moving
longuedutime
or
the
time
of
the
time
of
re,illusory
surprise,
irregularbeat,
timethatis cyclicalor runningin place, the timethatis behind itself,timethatalternatesbetweenfallingbehindand gettingahead
of itself,the timethatis ahead of itself,explosivetime.42How can
this be convincingto the historian?With such a wide range of
colors,it becomes impossibleto reconstituteunitarywhitelight,
whichis indispensableto him. He realizesquicklyas wellthatsuch
chameleon-liketimeis one more way,one supplementary
sign,to
refer,withoutadding anything,to the categoriespreviouslyoutlined. In theconstructof our friend,time,thelast category,simply
locates itselfamong all the others.It adapts itselfto each of these
homes,to the requirementsof the social strata,the small groups,
the social groups,the global societies.It's a different
wayof writing,withoutany real changes,the same equations. Each social realitycreatesits timesand itslevelsof time,like commonmollusks.
But whatdo we historiansgain thereby?The wholearchitectureof
thisideal cityis static.Historyis absentfromit. The world'stime,
historicaltime,is located in it like an Aeolian wind, imprisoned
in a goatskin.It is not to historythatthe sociologists,consciously
or not, are opposed, but to the timesof history,this realitythat
remainsviolent,even when one wants to tame it, to diversifyit.
This constraintfromwhichthehistorianneverescapes is one from
whichthe sociologistsalmostalwaysescape. They evade it, either
in the alwayspresentinstantaneousmoment,as thoughit were
suspended in time,or in the repetitivephenomenawhichare not
located in any particulartime.Thus theygo one of two opposite
ways,to thestrictestformof episodic time,or to thelongestlongue
dure.Is such an evasion legitimate?That is the real debate be41See
etla discontinuit
du
myno doubttoopolemicalarticle,"GeorgesGurvitch
social,"Annales
E.S.C.,No. 3, 1953,347-361.
42See
Dterminismes
sociauxetlibert
humaine,
Paris,P.U.F.,1955,
GeorgesGurvitch,
38-40 andpassim.
201
tweenhistoriansand sociologists,even forhistoriansof different

outlooks.
I don'tknowifthisarticlethatis too outspoken,too supported
by examplesas is the customof historians,will meet withthe approval of sociologistsand our other neighbors.I suspect not. It
would not be veryusefulin any case to repeat,as a sortof concluwhichwe have argued throughout.If historyis
sion, its leitmotiv,
to
called bynatureto givea primeconsiderationto temporalities,
all the movementsinto whichit can be distinguished,the longue
dureseems to us the one among themthatis mostusefulforcommon observationand reflectionby all the social sciences.Is it asking too much of our neighborsthat,when theythinkabout how
to proceed,theyrelatetheirassessmentsand theirfindingsto this
axis?
For historians,not all of whom agree with me, there would
followfromthisa completechange in orientationas well.Their instinctivepreferenceis to engage in short-term
history.This has the
In recomplicitaccordofthesacrosanctcurriculaof theuniversity.
of
view
this
reinforces
Sartre43
centarticles,Jean-Paul
when,
point
in his protestagainstwhatis both too simpleand too ponderous
in Marxism,he makesan argumentin favorof biographicaldetail
and the rich realityof the episodic. One hasn't said everything
once one has "situated"Flaubertas a bourgeois,or Tintorettoas
a pettybourgeois.I completelyagree. But each time,the studyof
the concretecase- Flaubert,Valry,or the foreignpolicy of the
Gironde-leads Sartre back to the deep structuralcontext.His
analysismovesfromthe surfaceto the depths of historyand correspondsto myown preoccupations.It would do so even more if
thehourglasswereoverturnedin twosenses- fromtheeventto the
structure,thenfromstructuresand models to the event.
Marxismis a wholepopulationofmodels.Sartreprotestsagainst
theschematicarguments,theinadequacyof themodel
therigidity,
in the name of the particularand the individual.I wouldjoin his
protest(witha fewnuances)- not howeveragainst the model, but
against the use one has made of it, the use one believes one has
been authorizedto make of it. The genius of Marx, the secretof
his lastingpower,is thathe was the firstto inventreal social mod43
Nov.1957,and
LesTemps
surTintoret,"
d'unlivre paratre
Modernes,
"Fragment
citedarticle.
thepreviously
202
FernandBraudel
els,based on thehistorical
longuedure.These modelshavebeen
frozenin theirsimpleform,bytreating
themas immutable
laws,
as a prioriautomatic
to
all
situexplanations,
universally
applicable
ationsand all societies.Whereasifone allowedthemto enterthe
wouldbe seen to be obchangingriversof time,theirframework
for
it
is
a
well-knit
model.
It
wouldbe constantly
vious,
solid,
apblurredor rekindled
plicable,butin nuancedforms,successively
also subjectto rules,different
bythepresenceofotherstructures,
and
hence
to
other
models.How one has shackledthecreones,
ativepowerofthemostpowerful
socialanalysisofthelastcentury.
Itwillonlyfinditsforceand itsyouthonceagainbyturning
to the
Marxismseemsto me
longuedure.MightI add thatpresent-day
to be theveryportrait
of thedangersin anysocialsciencethatis
too enamoredofthepuremodel,ofthemodelforthesakeofthe
model.
In conclusion,
whatI wouldliketo underline
as wellis thatthe
of commonlanguage
longuedureis onlyone of thepossibilities
withthesocialsciences.I havepointedouttheplusesand minuses
oftheattempts
ofthenewsocialmathematics.
Thereare stillothers. The new mathematics
are veryseductive,
but the old kind,
whosesuccessis so obviousin economics-themostadvancedof
thehumansciences-does notdeservethecynicalremarkssometimesmade.Hugemeasurements
maystillbe expectedin thisclassical domain,but thereare teamsof calculatorsand calculating
machinesconstantly
I believein theutility
oflong
beingperfected.
statistical
sequences,and in theneed to pushthesemeasurements
and theresearcheverfurther
backin time.Manyteamsarealready
buttheyare also beginningto
doingitfortheeighteenth
century,
do it nowfortheseventeenth
and evenmorethesixteenth
centuries.Statistical
measurements
ofunexpectedhistorical
lengthare
nowopeningforus the depthsof the Chinesepast.44No doubt
statistics
thembetter.But
simplify
thingsin orderto understand
all scienceproceedsfromthecomplexto thesimple.
letus notforget
one lastlanguage,one lastfamily
of
However,
so
to
the
reduction
of
all
social
models,
speak- necessary
reality
to thespace it occupies.We are speakingof geography
and ecolon thesedifferences
in vocabulary.
ogy,without
tarrying
Geogra44Otto Berkelbach,
Van der Sprenkel,"PopulationStatisticsof Ming China,"
"ZurFinanz-undAgrargeschichte
derMingDynasB.S.O.A.S.,1951;MarianneZinger,
tie,1368-1643,"Sinica,1932.
203
phytoo oftenthinksof itselfas a worldapart, and thatis a pity.

It should listento Vidal de la Blache, who did his analysesnot in
termsof time and space, but ratherin termsof space and social
reality.That makesgeographyrelevantto all of the social sciences.
As forecology,it seems to be a word thatpermitsthe sociologist
to talkof geographywithoutadmittingit,and thusto indicatethe
issuesthatspace poses for,or evenmorerevealsby,attentiveobservation.Spatial models are maps whereinsocial realityis projected
and partiallyexplained,modelsvalid forall the temporalities(but
especiallythatof thelonguedure)and forall social categories.But
social science ignores them to an astonishingdegree. I have often thoughtthatone of the superioritiesof Frenchsocial sciences
was the geographicalschool of Vidal de la Blache, whose spirit
and lessonswe deeplyregretare todaybetrayed.All the social sciences should open themselvesto that "evergreatergeographical
conceptof humankind"thatVidal de la Blache called foralready
in 1903.45
In practice-for this article has a practicalobjective-I would
hope thatthe social scienceswould forthe timebeing stop arguing so muchabout theirreciprocalborders-whatis or is not social
science,whatis or is not a structure.Let us rathertryto findthe
commonlinesof our research,ifsuch therebe, whichmightorient
a collectiveresearchprogramaround themesthatmightpermitus
to reach an initialconvergence.I personallythinkthese common
lines are mathematization,
spatial specification,and longuedure.
But I would be curious to hear what other specialistsmightpropose. For thisarticlehas been placed in AnnalesE.S.C., quite deunder the categoryof "Debates and Combats."It seeks
liberately,
to layon the table,not resolve,some problemsin whicheach of us
unhappily,in termsofhis special field,is exposed to obviousrisks.
These pages are a call fordiscussion.
45Revuede
1903, p. 239.
historique,
synthse

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Research Foundation of SUNY

History and the Social Sciences: The Longue Dure

Historyand theSocial Sciences

linguisticsunder the label of the science of communications.But

HISTORY AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

HISTORY AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

So let us tryto use clearer language, replacing"event"with

HISTORY AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

No doubt these chronologicalperiods have no absolutevalue.

HISTORY AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

are also prisonsof the longue

The mostaccessibleexample is still thatof geographicalconstraint.Man is a prisonerforlong centuriesof climates,of vegetations,ofanimalpopulations,oftypesofcrop,ofslowlyconstructed

soughtto delineatethe mentaltools of Frenchthoughtat the time

with the Florentinerenaissance,of a "geometric"cultural space

13Ren Courtin,La Civilisation

HISTORY AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

silver,even copper). The conflictsamong the metals were only

boundaries,the rightSchool. What is true is thatall the various

HISTORY AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

II. THE QUARRELABOUTTHE SHORT-TERM

own volition,whilenot denyingitsvalue. The economisthas fallen

HISTORY AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

saved fromoblivion.The historianpreparedhis trip.One hour in

foratedcards,he can captureperfectly

18P. Chombart de Lauwe, Paris et V

No. 17, 1951.

No. 71, 1955.

HISTORY AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

thepast,scienceof thepresent."Is nothistory,

HISTORY AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

darkness,of givingit an ever largerrole beside, even in place of,

Colin,1949,p. 264 ff.

HISTORY AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

especially Claude Lvi-Strauss,BulletinInternationaldes SciencesSociales,

Theoryof Gamesand EconomicBehavior,Princeton,1944. See the brilliant

HISTORY AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

researchquestionsare thus opened up.

"In everysociety,communicationsoperate at three different

finda basic elementcorrespondingto the phoneme,this"atomic"

HISTORY AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

Let us nowreintroduceduration.I have said thatmodelshavea

the clearest,themostdeeplyrootseem to me the mostintelligent,

HISTORY AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

sentialelementsof theobservedphenomenonand determinetheir

he maydream of escapingit. Amidstthe anguish of 1940, Gaston

HISTORY AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

es us forward,constrainsus, sweeps awayour individualtimesof

his durationsnor his temporalities.The vast social edifice(shall

HISTORY AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

tweenhistoriansand sociologists,even forhistoriansof different

HISTORY AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

phytoo oftenthinksof itselfas a worldapart, and thatis a pity.

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