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History and the Social Sciences: The Longue DuréeAuthor(s): Fernand Braudel and Immanuel WallersteinSource: Review (Fernand Braudel Center), Vol. 32, No. 2, COMMEMORATING THE LONGUE

DURÉE (2009), pp. 171-203Published by: for and on behalf of theResearch Foundation of SUNY Fernand Braudel CenterStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40647704Accessed: 27-08-2014 08:15 UTC

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Historynd theSocial Sciences

The

Longue

Durée

Fernand

BraudeV

There

is a generalcrisis n the human sciences.They are all

overwhelmed

y

their

uccesses,

f

only

because

of

the accu-

mulation

f

new

knowledge.

But it

is also

because

they

now

need

to

work

ollectively,

nd

how

to

organize

ntelligently

uch

collec-

tivework

has

yet

to

be

determined.

Whether

hey

wish

t or

not,

they

re

all

affected,

irectly

r

indirectly, y

the

progress

f the

most

uick-witted

mong

them.

But

they

emain

nonetheless

n

the

grip

of a

humanism

hat

s

retrograde

nd

insidious,

ne

that

an

no

longer

erve

as a

framework

or

cholarship.

All of

them,

with

varying egreesof ucidity,re concerned bouttheirplace in the

monstrous

rray

f

old

and

new

modes

of

research,

whose

neces-

sary

onvergence

eems

to

be

in

process.

Faced

with

these

difficulties,

ill

the

human

sciences

try

to

resolve

them

by

an

additional

effort

o

define

themselves

r

by

becoming

still

more

cranky?

erhaps

they

have

the

illusion

that

such

an

additional

ffort

an

succeed.

For

they

re

more

than

ever

preoccupied

with

defining

heir

particular

goals,

methods,

nd

merits- unningthe riskof churningup old formulas nd false

problems.

hey

are

engaged

in

bickering

ndlessly

bout

the

bor-

ders

that

separate

them,

fully

r

partially,

rom

neighboring

is-

ciplines.

For each

of

them

seems

in

fact

to

dream

of

remaining

where

t is

or to

return

o where

t

was.

A

few

solated

scholars

try

o

suggest

inkages.

Claude

Lévi-Strauss1

ushes

"structural"

anthropology

n the

direction

f

the

techniques

f

inguistics,

he

horizons

of

"unconscious"

history,

nd

the

uvenile

imperialism

of

"qualitative"

mathematics.

He

is

trying

o

establish

science

that wouldbringtogether nthropology, oliticaleconomy, nd

*

Translated

y

mmanuel

Wallerstein.

1

Anthropologie

tructurale.

aris:

Pion,

1958,

passim,

nd

especially

page

329.

review,

xxii,

,

2009,

171-203

171







172

FernandBraudel

linguistics

nder the label

of

the science

of

communications.

ut

is there nyonereadyto cross these borders nd enterthesenew

groupings?

or the mere toss of a

coin,

even

geography

would

be

prepared

to divorce

history

But let us not

be

unfair.

There

is

good

reason

forthese

quar-

rels nd theserefusals. he

wish

to

distinguish

neself rom thers

is

bound

to

result

n

widening

one's

curiosity.

o

deny

the other

is

already

to

know

the other.

Even

more,

without

ntending

t

ex-

plicitly,

he social sciences

mpose

themselves

n

each

other.

Each

one triesto

grasp

the

social

in

its

"totality."

ach one

encroaches

on theother, elieving hat t s remainingn its corner.Econom-

ics

discovers

he

sociology

hat urrounds t.

History, erhaps

the

least structured f the human

sciences,

accepts

lessons from ll

its

multiple

neighbors

nd tries to absorb them.

So,

despite

the

reticence,

he

oppositions,

he

quiet

ignorance,

the outline of a

"common

market" s

beginning

o come into

existence. t would be

worth

pursuing

his

path

in

the

coming

years

even

if,

eventually,

each

discipline

might

ind t

again

useful,

or

while,

o

resume

morestrictlyarticular ath.

But the first

hing

we

urgently

eed to do is to come

nearer to

each other.

n

the United

States,

hishas takenthe form f collec-

tiveresearch n cultural ones in

the

contemporary

orld.

This is

called "area

studies" nd consists f the

study y

a team

of

social

scientists f the

political

monsters f the

contemporary

orld:Chi-

na, India, Russia,

Latin

America,

he

United

States.

To

understand

them s a

question

of

survival

urthermore,

n

this

oming

ogeth-

er of

techniques

nd

differentinds

of

knowledge,

he

participants

cannot remaintethered o theirparticular esearchproblem, eaf

and

blind,

as

they

used to

be,

to

what

the

others re

saying,

writ-

ing,

and

thinking

n

addition,

he

bringing ogether

f the social

sciences

mustbe

all-inclusive. ne should not

neglect

older disci-

plines

n

favor

f

newer

nes

that eem to be so muchmore

promis-

ing,

whenthis

n

fact

may

not turn

ut

to

be the case. For

example,

the

place

given

to

geography

n

these

American fforts

s

virtually

non-existent,

nd thatoffered o

history ery

lender.And indeed

one has to ask,what ortofhistorys included?

The other

ocial sciences re rather

ll-informedbout thecrisis

through

which

history

as been

going

for he ast

twenty

r

thirty

years.

They

tendto

misunderstandtand not to be

acquainted

with

the

work

f

historians.

hey

do

not knowthe

part

of social

reality







HISTORY

AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

173

of

which

history

s the faithful

ervant,

f

not

always

skilled

dvo-

cate. These are the social continuities,hemultiple nd contradic-

tory

emporalities

f human

lives,

which constitute

ot

only

the

substance

f the

past

but the stuff

f

present-day

ocial life.This

is

one morereason

to underline

igorously,

midst he debate that

is

going

on

among

all

the human

sciences,

how

important,

ow

useful

history

s. Or rather ow

mportant

nd useful t s to under-

standthe

dialecticof

continuities,

hich

merge

from he work f

the historian's

epeated

observations.

Nothing

s

more

mportant,

in our

opinion,

than this

iving,

ntimate,

nfinitelyepeated

op-

positionbetween he nstantaneous nd the timethatflows lowly.

Whether

we

are

dealing

with

the

past

or the

present,

n aware-

ness

of the

plurality

f

temporalities

s

indispensable

o a common

methodology

f

the human sciences.

I shall dwell

on

history,

n the

temporalities

f

history.

do

this ess

for he readers

f

Annales,

who

know hese

works,

hanfor

those

n

neighboring

isciplines-

conomists,

thnographers,

th-

nologists

or

anthropologists),

ociologists, sychologists,

inguists,

demographers,eographers,ven social mathematiciansr statis-

ticians.

hey

are all

neighbors

whose

experiments

nd researchwe

havefollowed

or

manyyears

because it seemed to us

(still

eems to

us)

that,

n

theirwake

or

by

contactwith

hem,

history

s furnished

a new vision.

Perhaps

we

have

something

o offer hem

n return.

The recent

researches

of historianshave

offered s-

consciously

or

not,

willingly

r not- n ever

more

precise

dea

of the

multiplic-

ity

f

temporalities

nd

of the

exceptional

mportance

f

the

ong

term.

This last

concept,

more than

history

tself-

istory

with

a

hundred aces- s sureto be of nterest o ourneighbors,he social

sciences.

I.

HISTORY

AND CONTINUITIES

All historical

writing eriodizes

the

past,

and makes

choices

among

chronological

ealities,

ased on

positive

r

negativepref-

erences hat remore or lessconscious.Traditionalhistory, hichis oriented o brief ime

spans,

to the

ndividual,

o the

event,

has

long

ccustomed

s

to an accountthat

s

precipitate,

ramatic,

nd

breathless.







174

FernandBraudel

The neweconomic nd

social

history

as made

cyclical

hifts

central o itsanalysisnd arguesprimarilybouttheir uration.It has beenfascinated

y

the

mirage

nd

by

the realities fthe

cyclical

ise and fall

of

prices.

t has

placed

besidethe

narrative

(or

traditional

recitative")

recitative

f

the

cyclical hase

that

divides he

past

nto

arge

lices f

10, 0,

or 50

years.

Well

beyond

this econd ecitativeies

history

f

venmore

ustained

readth,

this ime fsecular

ength:

he

history

f

ong,

ven

veryong,

u-

ration

longue

urée).

his

formula,

or

good

or

ill,

has become

standard erm

or

me,

to

designate

he

opposite

f

what

rançois

Simiand, ne of theearliest ofollowheusageofPaulLacombe,

called

pisodic istory

histoirevénementielle).

o

matterhe

desig-

nations,

e shall enter ur discussion

n

these wo

poles

of

time,

the nstantaneousnd the

ong-term.

Not that hese erms

ave definitive

eaning.

ake

the

word

"event."would

ike o

imit

t,

o

mprison

t

n

the hort erm. n

event

s

an

explosion,

omething

hathas "the oundof

newness"

(nouvelleonnante)

s

they

aid

n the

ixteenth

entury.

mid

ts

deceptivemoke,t fills he conscious omainoftoday's eople,

but

t

doesn't ast

ong, isappearing

lmost

s soon

as one sees ts

flame.

The

philosophers

robably

ould

ay

that am

emptying

he

word event" f a

good

part

of

ts content.

n

event,

t the

very

least,

may

nclude series f

meanings

nd

relationships.

ome-

times t

may rovide

he

evidence

f

very

major

hanges.

And

by

the

perhaps

ontrived

ame

of "causes" nd

"effects"ear

to

his-

toriansn the

past,

t

can include

period

far

onger

han ts

own

occurrence.nfinitelytretchable,he vent ecomesinked, yde-

sign

r

by

hance,

o

whole hain f

vents,

f

underlying

ealities

that hen

become

mpossible,

t

seems,

o

disentangle,

ne from

the

other.

y

uch n

arithmetical

ame,

Benedetto roce s able

to

claim hat

within

very

vent ll of

history,

ll ofhumankinds

contained,

nd thus

an be

rediscovered

t

will.

On

condition,

o

be

sure,

hat

we add to this

ragment

hat

s not n it

at first

ight

and

thereforeo discern

what

s or

s not dmissible o nclude n

it. t s this lever nddangerous amethatwefind ntherecentarticles f

Jean-Paul

artre.2

2

Jean-Paul

artre,

Questions

e

méthode,"

es

Temps

odernes,

os. 139 &

140,

1957.







HISTORY

AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 175

So let us

try

to use clearer

anguage,

replacing

"event"with

"short erm"-which s on the scale of the ndividual, fdaily ife,

of

our

illusions,

f our

momentary

warenesses. t

is the

preferred

timeof the

chronicler nd

the

ournalist.

Now,

et us

then

observe

that chronicle

r a

newspaper

ffers

s,

in addition to

great,

o-

called historical

vents,

he trivial

happenings

of

ordinary

ife-

fire,

train

ccident,

he

price

of

wheat, crime,

theatrical

er-

formance,

flood.

Everyone

husrealizes thatthere xists

short

term

n

every

phere

of ife- he

economic,

ocial,

iterary,

nstitu-

tional,

eligious,

ven the

geographic

a

gust

of

wind,

tempest-

as wellas in thepolitical.

At first

lance,

he

past

s thismass

of

detailed

facts,

ome

spec-

tacular,

thers

obscure and

constantly

epeated,

the

kind of

facts

which

hese

days

are

the

regular

quarry

f the

microsociologist

r

sociometrists

and

of the microhistorian

s

well).

But

thismassive

array

oes not constitute

he whole

thick

eality

f

history

hat

we

may

ubject

to careful

cientific

eflection. ocial

science feels

l-

most

repelled

by

the event.

And not without

ause. The

short erm

is the most apricious, he mostdeceptive f timeperiods.

This is the

explanation

why

ome

of

us

historians ave

come to

be

very

wary

f

traditional,

o-called

episodic history,

label that

overlaps, erhaps

unjustly,

ith

hat

of

politicalhistory.

or

politi-

cal

history

s neither

ecessarily

or

nevitably pisodic.

But none-

theless

t s a

fact

hat,

xcept

for he

artificial

ummary

tatements

with

which

t fills

ts

pages

(statements

hat

usually

ack

any

tempo-

ral

breadth)3

nd

except

for he

occasional

ong-term

xplanations

that re

included,

lmost

ll of

politicalhistory

f the ast

hundred

yearshasbeen focusedon "great vents" nd has confinedtself o

writing

bout

the

short erm.

This was

perhaps

he

price

t

paid

for ts

great

ccomplishments

during

this

time-

cquiring

scientific

ools of

work

nd

rigorous

methods.

The

massive

discovery

f documents

ed historians o

believe

hat

hewhole

of truthwas

located

n

authentic

ocuments.

Only

recently

was

Louis

Halphen

still

writing4

hat

"it

suffices

o

allow

oneself

n some sense

to be carried

long

by

the

documents,

read n sequence,such as wefind hem, o see the chainof events

reveal

hemselves

o us almost

automatically."

his

ideal,

"history

3

"Europe

n

1500,"

The world

n

1880,"

Germany

n theeve

of the Reforma-

tion."

4

ntroduction

l'Histoire,

aris:

.U.F., 946,

.

50.







176

FernandBraudel

in

the

making,"

ulminatedt

the nd of he

nineteenth

entury

n

producinghroniclesf new tyle,neswhosembitionor reci-

sion

ed to

recording

pisodic istory

tepby tep

s seen

through

reading

he

correspondence

f

ambassadors

r the

parliamentary

debates.

It

was

quite

different

or

historians

n

the

ighteenth

nd

early

nineteenth

enturies ho had

been

attentive

o the

perspectives

of the

ongue

urée,

n the basis of which he

great

historians-

Michelet,

anke,

Jacob

Burckhardt,

ustel- ould

piece

together

the

arger

icture.

fone

believes

hat uch

going eyond

he hort

termwasthemost recious,lbeit herarest,chievementf the

lasthundred

ears,

ne

will

ppreciate

he

outstanding

oleof the

historiography

f

institutions,

f

religions,

f

civilizations,

nd

thanks o

archaeology

which

ecessarily

eals

with ast

ime

pe-

riods),

f the

avant-garde

ole of the

historiography

f classical

Antiquity.

hesehistorians

ere

he alvation

four craft.

The

recent reakwith raditional

orms f nineteenth-centu-

ryhistoriographyas notbeen a totalbreakwith he hort erm.

Therehas been a

movement,

s

we

know,

oward

conomic nd

social

history

t

the

expense

of

politicalhistory.

his

upheaval

has

brought

bout veritable

enewal,

nevitablynvolving

eth-

odological hanges,

isplacement

f thecenters f

nterest,

long

with

n increase f

quantitativeistory,

ll of

which

as

certainly

not xhaustedts

mpact.

But,

mostof

all,

there

has been a shift

f

traditional

isto-

riographical

emporality. day, yearmight

eem

appropriate

lengthsftime or political istorian. imewasthe umofdays.

But f one

wanted

o measure

price

urve,

demographic

ro-

gression, age

rends,

ariations

n

nterest

ates,

he

tudy

f

pro-

duction

more

hoped

for

han

chieved),

close

analysis

f

trade,

it

required

much

onger

measures

ftime.

A

newmode

of

historical arrative

s

emerging.

et us call

it

the

"recitative"f the

cyclical

hase conjoncture),

he

cycle,

ven

the

intercycle,"

hich ffered s

time

engths

f

a

dozen

years,

quarter f a century,nd the ongest,hehalf-centuryf theclas-sicalKondratieff

ycle.

or

example, eaving

sidebrief

ps

and

downs,

rices

ose

n

Europe

from

791

o

1817,

nd

went own

from

817

o

1852.

This

slow wofold

ise nd fall

was

a

complete

intercyclehroughouturope

nd

ust

about he ntireworld.







HISTORY

AND

THE

SOCIAL

SCIENCES

177

No doubt

these

chronological

eriods

have

no absolute value.

Usingdifferentindsof measures-growth f theeconomy nd of

national

ncome

and

national

product-

rançois

Perroux5

would

come

up

with

different

ime

markers,

hich

re

perhaps

more

use-

ful.

But we

should

not allow

ourselves

o

get bogged

down

n

such

discussions

t is

surely

he case

that the

historiannow has

at his

disposal

a new

temporality,

hich

has become

a

mode of

expla-

nation

by

means

of which

history

an be

periodized

n as

yet

un-

known

ways,

sing

thesecurves

nd their

scillations.

So

it s that

Ernest

Labrousse

and his students

ave set

to

work

on a vastresearch rojectn socialhistory, singquantitativemeth-

ods,

about which

hey

old

us

in

their

manifesto t

the recent

His-

torical

Congress

n Rome

(1955).

I am

not

being

unjust

to their

project

n

saying

hat

this research

must

necessarily

ulminate

n

determining

he

boundaries

of

social

cyclical

hases

perhaps

ven

of social

structures).

We

cannot know

n

advance whether

uch so-

cial

temporalities

ill

be as

fast r as slow

as economic

temporali-

ties.

Furthermore,hese twoenormouspersonas, ocial cycles nd

economic

cycles,

ught

not to

make us

lose

sight

f other

actors,

whose

movements

will

be

difficult,

erhaps

impossible,

o deter-

mine,

n

the

absence

of

anyprecise

measures.

cience,

technology,

political

nstitutions,

mental

constructs,

ivilizations

to

use this

convenient

ord),

ll

similarly

ave their

ife nd

growth

hythms.

The new

cyclical

history

will

only

reach

maturity

hen

t has as-

sembled

he entire

rchestra.

Logically,

his

recitative,

y

the

simpleprocess

of

going

beyond

itstemporal imits,houldhave ed us to the ongue urée. ut,for

many

reasons,

this

ogical

next

step

was

not

taken,

nd a return

to the

short

erm s

going

on

beforeour

very yes.

Perhaps

t has

been

thought

more

necessary

or

more

urgent)

o reconcile

cycli-

cal"

history

ith

raditional

hort-term

istory

han to

proceed

for-

ward

nto the

unknown.

Using

militaryanguage,

we

might

peak

of

consolidating

ur

advances.

Ernest

Labrousse's

first

reat

work

in 1933 was

a

study

f the

general

movement

f

prices

n France

n

the ighteenthentury, secularmovement.6n his bookpublished

in

1943,

he

greatest

work

f

history

ublished

n France

n the ast

5

Cf. his

Théorie

énérale

u

progrès

conomique,

ahiers

de l'I.S.

E.

A.,

1957.

6

Esquisse

u

mouvement

es

prix

tdesrevenus

n France u

XVIIIe

siècle, vol.,

Pans,

Dalloz,

1933.







178

FernandBraudel

twenty-fiveears,

he ame Ernest abrousse

ave

n to a

need

to

return o a less burdensomeemporalitynorder olocate n the

very

epths

f the 1774-1791

epression

ne of the

major

auses

of the French

Revolution,

ndeed ts

aunching-pad.

ven

so,

he

was

still

tilizing

demi-intercycle.

nd thenhe

went

urther.

n

his

paper

t the nternational

ongress

n

Paris

n

1948,

Comment

naissentes révolutions?"e

sought

histime o

link

short-term

economic

rama

new

style)

o

short-term

olitical

athos

very

old

style),

hat fthe

revolutionaryays.

Here

we

are back nto he

short

erm,

nd

up

to our necks

n

it.

To

be

sure,

he

ttempt

as

permissiblend useful. uthow ymptomatictwas The historian

enjoys eing

the

stage

director. ow could

he ever

give

up

the

drama f the hort

erm,

hebest

ricks f

very

ld trade?

Longer

han

cycles

nd

intercycles,

here s

what

conomists

call,

without

lways tudying

hem,

ecular rends. ut

very

ew

economistsre nterested

n

them.

heir

iews

n structural

rises,

which

ave

not been

subject

o the test f historical

erification,

taketheformfrough ketchesrhypotheses,ased on at most

the recent

ast,

ay

to

1929,

t

most o

1870.7

Nonetheless,

hey

provide

useful ntroductiono the

tory

fthe

ongue

urée.

hey

are a first

ey.

The second

key,

armore

useful,

s the

term

structure."or

good

or

ll,

t

pervades

hediscussion fthe

ongue

urée.

y

struc-

ture,"

ocial

observers

mply

n

organization,

degree

of

coher-

ence,

ather ixed elations

etween

ealitiesnd

socialmasses. or

us

historians,

structures

certainly

n

assemblage,

n architec-

ture, utevenmore t s a realityhat ime anonly lowlyrode,

one

that

oes

on for

long

time.Certain

tructures,

n their

ong

life,

ecome he table lementsf n

infinity

f

generations.hey

encumber

istory

nd restrict

t,

nd hence

ontrol

ts

flow.

ther

structuresrumblemore

uickly.

ut ll structuresre simultane-

ously

illars

nd

obstacles.

s

obstacles,

hey rovide

imitations

(what

mathematiciansall

envelopes)

rom

which

man

and

his ex-

periences

annot iberate

hemselves.

hink

f

how

difficult

t s to

break hroughertain eographicalrameworks,ertain iological

realities,

ertain imits o

productivity,

venoneoranother

piri-

7

Explained

n

detail

by

René

Clemens,

Prolégomènes

'une

théorie e la structureco-

nomique,

aris,

omat-Montchrestien,952;

ee also

Johann

kerman,

Cycle

t struc-

ture,"

evue

conomique,

o.

1,

1952.







HISTORY

AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 179

tual

constraint.

Mental

frameworksre also

prisons

of the

ongue

durée.

The most accessible

example

is still that of

geographical

on-

straint.

Man

is a

prisoner

or

ong

centuries

f

climates,

f

vegeta-

tions,

f animal

populations,

f

types

f

crop,

of

slowly

onstructed

equilibria,

which

he cannot

transform ithout he

risk of endan-

gering

verything.

ake the

role of transhumance

n mountain

ife,

or the

persistence

f certain

sectors of maritime

ife,

rooted

in

privileged

horeline

ocales.

Look at the endurance

of roads and

trade

routes,

nd

the

surprising

nchangeability

f

the

geographi-

cal boundariesof civilizations.

We

find he same

degree

of endurance nd survival

n

the

m-

mense

domain

of culture.

The

magnificent

ook of Ernst

Robert

Curtius,8

t

last translated

nto

French,

s the

study

f the cultur-

al

system

hat

ustained

the Latin civilization

f the

Late

Empire

right

p

to

the thirteenth

nd

fourteenth enturies

nd the birth

of

national

iteratures,

lbeit

selectively eforming

he

system

s it

came

to be overwhelmed

y

ts

heavyheritage.

The culture

of

the

intellectual lites s the same story.t livedbythe same themes,

comparisons,

maxims,

nd

hackneyed

ales.

Similarly,

he

study y

Lucien

Febvre,

Rabelais

et le

problème

e

l'incroyance

u XVIe

siècle,9

sought

o

delineate

he mental

ools

of French

hought

t

the time

of

Rabelais,

the

collection

f

concepts

that,

ong

before nd

long

after

him,

determined

he arts of

living, hinking,

nd

believing,

and which

trongly

onstrained

rom

he

outset

he ntellectual d-

ventures

f even

the

freest

pirits.

he

subject

reated

y

Alphonse

Dupront10

s

another

xample

of

the recent esearch

f the French

historical chool.In it,the dea of thecrusadein the West s ana-

lyzed

far

beyond

the fourteenth

entury,

hat

s,

far

beyond

the

"true"

crusades,

as a

continuous

ttitudeof

longue

durée,

which,

in endless

repetition,

raversed

he

most

diverse

ocieties,

worlds,

and

psychologies,

nd found

ts ast

expression mong

the men

of

the

nineteenth

entury.

n a

neighboring

ield,

he book

of Pierre

Francastel,

einture

t

Société,11

oints

to the

persistence, eginning

8

Europäische

iteratur nd lateinisches

ittelalter,erne, 1948;

French translation:

La littérature

uropéenne

t e

MoyenAge

atin,Paris,P.U.F.,

1956.

9

Paris,

lbin

Michel, 943;

3rd

d.,

1969.

10

Le

mythe

e

Croisade.Essai

de

sociologie eligieuse,

hèse

dactylographiée,

or-

bonne.

11

Peinture

t

Société.

aissance

tdestruction'une

espace lastique,

e

a Renaissance

u

cubisme,

yon,

Audin,

1951.







180

FernandBraudel

with

the Florentine

enaissance,

of

a

"geometric"

ultural

space

thatwas unchangedup to cubism nd the ntellectual ainting f

the

beginning

of our

century.

he

history

f the sciences

s

also

composed

of constructed

niverses

hat

constitute omewhat

m-

perfect xplanatory

models,

but

whichhave

been

regularly

greed

upon

for

enturies.

hey

havebeen

Rejected nly

fter

ong

service.

The Aristotelian niverse

persisted irtually

ithout

issent

up

to

Galileo, Descartes,

nd Newton.

t

gave

way

then to a

profoundly

geometrical

niversewhich

gave

way

n

turn,

enturies

ater,

o the

Einsteinian evolutions.12

The problem, n what s only seemingly paradox, is to un-

cover

the

longue

durée n the domain

in

which

historical

esearch

has been

undeniably

most

uccessful,

hat

of the

economy.Cycles,

intercycles,

tructural rises

may

mask

the

regularities

nd

conti-

nuities f

systems

some

would

call them

ultures)13-

hat

s,

of old

habits f

thought

nd

action,

of frameworkshat

trenuously

esist

dying,

owever

llogical.

Let us illustrate his

with

one

easily analyzed example. Right

here in Europe, therewas an economicsystemwith rather lear

rules,

which

can be characterized

n

a few

ines. It

was

operative

more or less from he

fourteenth

o the

eighteenth entury,

r

to

be

safe,

up

to

1750.

For

long

centuries,

conomic

activity

epend-

ed on

demographically ragile opulations,

s

may

be seen in the

great

decline of 1350-1450 and no doubt also that

of

1650-1730.

4

For

ong

centuries,

irculation

equired

primarily

ater

nd

ships,

since

every

and barrier onstituted

n

obstacle

and therefore

as

less desirablefor

transport. uropean

economic

expansions

were

located in coastal zones,with a fewexceptionsthatconfirm he

rule

the

Champagne

fairs

whichwere

lreadydeclining

t the be-

ginning

f this

period,

the

Leipzig

fairs n the

eighteenth

entury).

A further haracteristic f this

system

was the

predominant

ole

of merchants nd

the

prominent

ole of

the

precious

metals

gold,

12

Additionally,

refer hereader o the

following

rticles hat

make

imilar

rgu-

ments: ttoBrunner

n

the ocial

history

f

Europe,

Historische

eitschrift,

LXXVII,

3;

R.

Bultmannn

humanism,bid., LXXVI, 1;Georges efebvre,

nnales

istoriquesde a Révolution

rançaise,

o. 114, 1949;F.

Härtung

n

enlightened

espotism,

isto-

rische

eitschrift,

LXXX,

1.

13

René

Courtin,

a Civilisation

conomique

u

Brésil, aris,

ibrairie e

Médicis,

1941.

14

his s true or rance. n

Spain,

demographic

ecline

egan

t theend

of

the

sixteenth

entury.







HISTORY


181

silver,

ven

copper).

The conflicts

mong

the

metals

were

only

brought o a partialend withthe decisivedevelopment f credit

towards

he end

of the

sixteenth

entury.

n

addition,

there

was

the

repeated

damage

wrought y

seasonal

agricultural

rises,

the

fragility

f the

very

base

of economic ife.

And

finally,

herewas

the

apparently

isproportionate

ole of one

or

two

principal

xter-

nal trade

circuits:Levantine

trade from he twelfth

o sixteenth

centuries

nd

colonial trade

n

the

eighteenth.

I

have

thus

defined,

r rather

nvoked,

widespread

view

of

the traits

f merchant

apitalism

n

western

urope,

a

longue

urée

stage.Despiteall the obviouschangesoverthisperiod,these four

or five enturies

how

a certain

oherence hat asted

until the

up-

heavals

of

the

eighteenth

entury

nd of the ndustrial

evolution

in

which

we

still

find

urselves.

ome

characteristics ereconstant

and

remained

nchanged

while ll

around

them,

midst

ther on-

tinuities,

thousand

ruptures

nd

upheavals

were

transforming

the

face

of

the world.

Amongthedifferentistorical emporalities,he longuedurée

stands

out as

a

troublesome,

omplicated,

ften

urprising igure.

To admit t

nto the

very

eart

of our

work

will

not be

an

easy

task,

a

mere

enlargement

f fields

of

study

nd

exotic interests.

Nor

will

t be a

simple

decision

n its favor lone.

For the

historian,

o

include

t

would

be to

accept

a

change

of

style

nd

attitude,

n

up-

ending

of

ways

f

thinking,

new

concept

of the

social. It

requires

getting

o know lower

emporalities,

lmost mmobile

nes.

Only

when

that

happens,

and

not before-

shall return o

this-will it

be legitimateo freeoneselffrom he nexorablemarchofhistori-

cal

time,

o leave t

behind,

nd

thento return

o it

with

new

eyes,

with

new

uncertainties,

ith

new

questions.

n

any

case,

on the

basis of

these

ayers

f slow

history,

ne can rethink he

totality

f

history,

s

though

t

were

ocated

atop

an infrastructure.

ll

the

stages,

ll the

thousands

f

stages,

ll the thousands

f

explosions

of

historical

ime

can be understood

rom hese

depths,

from

his

semi-immobility.

verythingravitates

round

t.

I

do

not

claim,

n

what

have

said,

to have

defined he

profes-

sion of the

historian,

ut

rather ne

conception

f this

profession.

Happy,

nd

rather

aive,

s he who would

think,

fter he

storms f

recent

years,

hatwe have

discovered

he

true

principles,

he clear







182

FernandBraudel

boundaries,

the

right

chool.

What

is true

s

that all

the

various

social scienceshaveendlessly een transforminghemselves,oth

as a result

f their ndividual nternal

evelopments

nd

by

virtue

of the movement

f

the whole.

History

s no

exception.

Calm is not

in

sight

nd

the hour of the

disciples

has not struck. he moment

between

he time

of

Charles-Victor

anglois

nd Charles

Seignobos

and that

of Marc Bloch was

long.

But ever since

Marc

Bloch,

the

wheel

has

not

ceased

turning.

or

me,

history

s

the

sum of all

pos-

sible histories-

set of

multiple

kills nd

points

of

view,

hose of

yesterday,

oday,

nd

tomorrow.

The onlymistake,nmyview,wouldbe to choose one ofthese

histories

o the exclusion f all the others.

This

would

be to

repeat

the historicistrror. t

will

not be

easy,

s we

know,

o

persuade

all

historians

f

this,

nd even

ess all social

scientists,

iven

he

many

relentless fforts o return

us to

history

s it used to be

written.

It

will take

much time and effort o

get

them to

accept

all these

changes

and

novelties

s

integral

o

the old label of

history.

nd

yet

new historical science"

has been

born,

one that

ontinues o

reflect pon and transformtself.n France, tgoes back to 1900

with heRevuede

synthèseistorique

nd

since

1929

to Annales. he

new

historians

have

tried to

pay

attention o all the

human sci-

ences. That is

what

s

giving

ur

profession

uch

strange

frontiers

and such exotic

qualities.

Let us

thenno

longer

hink hatthe dif-

ferences f

yesterday

till

form

he barrier

they

did

between

the

historian

nd the social science observer.

All the social

sciences,

including

history,

ave

mutually

ontaminated ach other.

They

are

speaking,

r

can

speak,

the same

language.

Whetherone is writing bout 1558 or theyearof Our Lord

1958,

f

one

wants

to understand he

world,

ne has to determine

the

hierarchy

f

forces,

urrents,

nd individual

movements,

nd

then

put

them

ogether

o form

n overall

onstellation.

hrough-

out,

one must

distinguish

etween

ong-term

movements

nd mo-

mentary ressures,

inding

he mmediate ourcesof

the

atter nd

the

ong-term

hrust f

the former.

he

worldof

1558,

so

bleak in

France,

was not

produced ust

out of the events f thatcharmless

year.The same s truefor hisdifficultear f 1958 nFrance.Each

"current

eality"

s

the

conjoining

f movements

ith

differentri-

gins

and

rhythms.

he time of

today

s

composed

simultaneously

of the timeof

yesterday,

f the

day

before

yesterday,

nd of

bygone

days.







HISTORY

AND

THE

SOCIAL SCIENCES

183

II.

THE

QUARREL

ABOUT

THE

SHORT-TERM

To be

sure,

theseverities re

platitudes.

Nonetheless,

he social

sciences

have seldom

been

tempted

o write bout

lost

time

temps

perdu).

Not that one

can

formally

ccuse

them,

nd

say they

re

guilty

f not

accepting

history

r duration s

necessary

imensions

of their

work.

They

do

in

fact eem to welcomeus. "Diachronie"

analysis,

which

restores he

historical

lement,

s never omitted

from

heir

heoretical

reoccupations.

But

putting

hese

curtsies

side,

one has to

say

thatthe social

sciences-bytaste, ydeep instinct,rpossibly y training- end l-

ways

o

shy way

from istorical

xplanations. hey

avoid

them,

n

two

virtually

ppositeways. heymay

deal

excessively

ith

events,"

or if

you

will,

they

presentize"

ocial

research,

hanksto an em-

pirical

ociology

hatdisdains

any

kind of

history

nd limits tself

to

short-term

ata,

to

on-the-spot

urveys.

Or

theydispense

with

time

ltogether y

nventing,

ia a

"scienceof

communications,"

mathematical

ormula

or

virtually

imeless tructures.

his latter

method, he atestone, is obviously heonlyone thatmight e of

great

nterest o

us. But the one

centering

n eventshas

enough

partisans

hatwe

ought

o examine each

option successively.

We have

indicatedour

skepticism

bout a

purely

pisodic

his-

toriography.

o be

fair,

f such a vice

exists,

lthoughhistory

s

the favorite

arget

f the

critics,

t

s not the

only

guilty

arty.

All

the

social sciences

participate

n

thiserror.

conomists,

emogra-

phers,

nd

geographers

re

split although

perhapsunevenly plit)

between hoseworkingn thepastand thoseworking n thepres-

ent.

f

they

were

wise,

they

would

balance their ttention.

his is

easy

and

necessary

for

the

demographer.

t

is

almost automatic

with

geographers

especially

forthose

n France

who

are

brought

up

in the tradition

f Vidal de la

Blache).

It

only rarely

happens,

on the other

hand,

with

conomists,

who are

imprisoned

n

a

very

short

resent.

hey

eldom

go

further ack than

1945,

nd

they

o

forward

n

terms

f

plans

and forecasts

nto an immediatefuture

of severalmonths, everalyearsat the verymost.I suggestthat

all economic

thought

s

trapped

n this time bind.

They

tell the

historians

hat t is their ask

to

studyperiods

earlier

than

1945,

in

search

of ancient

conomies.

But

n

this

way hey eprive

hem-

selves

of a marvelous

ieldfor

observation,

bandoning

t of their







184

FernandBraudel

own

volition,

while

not

denying

tsvalue.

The economisthas fallen

into thegrooveofrunning fter nalysis f thepresent n behalf

of

governments.

The

outlook of

ethnographers

nd

ethnologists

s neither s

clear

cut nor

as worrisome.

ome of

them,

t s

true,

have

nsisted

upon

the

impossibility

nd

futility

f

history

within he

kind of

work

they

do

(although

t should be said

that an intellectual

s

called

upon

to do the

mpossible).

This authoritarian

ejection

f

history

as

ill

served Malinowski

nd

his

disciples.

n

truth,

ow

can

anthropology

e disinterested

n

history?

t is

the same adven-

tureof themind, s Claude Lévi-Straussikes to say.15here is no

society,

owever

nsophisticated,

hich

annotbe seen to have felt

the "claws

f the

event,"

or

s there

ny

society

whose

history

as

been

entirely

ost. t

would

be

wrong

o

complain

about

this mat-

ter,

r to discuss

t further.

On the other

hand,

on the

question

of the short

erm,

we have

strong

ifferences

ith

he

sociology

hat

engages

n

surveys,

ur-

veys

hatdeal

with

thousand different

opics

n the domains of

sociology, sychology,nd economics.They are springing p in

France,

s elsewhere.

hey

represent

sortof constant

amble

on

the

irreplaceable

value

of the

present,

ts

"volcanic"

heat,

ts

im-

mense richness.What

point

s there n

turning

o historical ime-

impoverished,implified,

evastated

y

ts

silences,

econstructed?

The word to be underlinedhere is reconstructed. ut

is the

past

really

o

dead,

as reconstructed s one claims?

To be

sure,

the

historian s too

ready

to discernwhat s essential

n

time

gone

by.

As

Henri Pirenne

aid,

he

easily

decides

which

re the

"important

events,"meaning thosewhichhave had consequences."This is an

obvious nd

dangerous

implification.

ut

whatwould

the

voyager

in

the

present

not

give

to be able to have some distance from he

present,

o

see it

from

future

oint

n

time?He

might

hen un-

mask or

simplify

resent-day

appenings

that are

confused,

un-

readable

because

too encumbered

ygestures

nd minorfeatures.

Claude Lévi-Strauss laims that n hour'sconversation

ith

ne of

Plato's

contemporaries

would

tell

him

more than all our lectures

on the classics about the coherence,or incoherence, f the cul-

ture of

Greek

Antiquity.16entirely gree.

But that s because he

has been

listening

or

many,manyyears

to all those Greek voices

15

Anthropologie

tructurelle,

p.

cit.,

p.

31

16

"Diogene

couché,"

Les

Temps

Modernes,

o.

195,

p.

17.







HISTORY

AND

THE

SOCIAL

SCIENCES

185

saved

from blivion.

The historian

repared

his

trip.

One

hour n

theGreece oftodaywouldteachhimnothing, r next tonothing,

about

present-day

oherences r incoherences.

What

s

more,

he researcher

working

n

the

present

will

only

be able to

get

to the

"precise"

ramework

f the

existing

tructures

if he too

reconstructs,

uggests xplanatory

ypotheses,

efuses o

accept

at facevalue

the

reality

e

perceives

ut rather

runcates

t,

transcends

t,

n

order

o

get

a handle on it- ll

ways

f reconstruct-

ing

t. don't

believe that

sociologicalphotograph

f the

present

is "truer"

han a

historical

ortrayal

f the

past,

especially

o the

degreethat t distances tself rom econstruction.

Philippe

Aries17

as stressed

he

mportance

f

unfamiliarity,

f

the

unexpected

n historical

xplanation.

n

studying

he

sixteenth

century,

ne comes

up

against

omething trange, trange

o

you,

man of the twentieth

entury.

he

question

before

you

s how

to

ex-

plain

thisdifference.

ut would

suggest

hat

urprise,

nfamiliar-

ity,

emoteness-

hese

great

ways

f

knowing-

re no less

necessary

to understand

hat

which

urrounds

ou,

hat

which

s so close that

youcannotperceive tclearly. ive in London for yearand you

will

not know

much about

England.

But,

by making

the

compari-

sons,

you

will

suddenly

ome

to understand ome of

the

deepest,

most

pecific

haracteristics

f

France,

hosewhich

you

neverknew

precisely

ecause

you

knew

them.

So, too,

the

past

s the unfamil-

iar

by

means

of which

ne can

understand he

present.

So historians

nd

social

scientists an

eternally

ass

the ball

back

and

forth etween

he dead document

nd the too

living

es-

timony,

etween

hedistant

ast

and the

too

close

present.

do not

think his s the fundamental uestion.The present nd thepast

can be better

een

in their

reciprocal

ights.

And if one observes

them

nly

n

the

mmediate

resent,

ne's attentionwillbe

drawn

to

thatwhich

moves

uickly,

hich

glitters

hether aluable

or

not,

or which

has

ust

changed

or made

noise or is

easily

discovered.

A

whole

pisodic

explanation,

s tedious

s

any

offered

y

historians,

can

ensnare

heobserver

n

a

hurry-

he

ethnographer

ho

spends

three

monthswith

small

Polynesian

people,

the

industrial oci-

ologistwhooffers s the clichésofhislatest urvey,r whothinks

that,

with

clever

questionnaire

nd cross-tabulations

sing

per-

17

Les

Temps

e

Vhistoire,

aris,Plon, 1954,

esp. p.

298

ff.







186

FernandBraudel

forated

ards,

he can

capture erfectly

social mechanism. he

social s more unning rey han hat.

To be

truthful,

hy

hould

we

human

cientists

e

interested

n

theresults f

a vast nd well-done

urvey

n the

region

f

Paris,18

which etailed heroute f

young irl

rom

erhome

n

the16th

arrondissemento her

music eacher nd to Sciences-Po?

e

get

a

pretty ap

outof

t.Buthad shebeena studentf

gronomy

r an

adept

of

water-skiing

hese

riangularrips

wouldhave

been

quite

different.am

delighted

o see a

map

showing

he

distributionf

thehomes f

the

employees

f a

large

firm. ut

f

don't

have

mapof heir reviousistribution,nd f he ime etween he wo

surveys

s not

ufficientlyreat

o

allow

ne to see this

s

part

f

large hange,

what

s

the

uestion

weare

asking,

ithout

hich

he

survey

s a

waste

f

time?

urveys

or he

ake

of

surveys

erve t

most o

accumulateome

data.

We

don't

venknow hat

pso acto

thesedata

will

be

useful or

uture

esearch. et us

beware

f

art

for

rt's ake.

Similarly,

doubt

hat

study

f

city,

o

matter

hich

ne,

an

bethe bject f sociologicalnquiry,s wasdoneforAuxerre19r

Vienne n

Dauphiné,20

ithout

nserting

t n

the

historical

ong-

term.

ny ity-

society

ith

onflicts,

ith ts

rises,

ts

ruptures,

its

breakdowns,

ts

nevitable

cheming-

as tobe

placed

within

he

context fthe

ountryside

hat urrounds

t,

nd also within hose

archipelagos

f

neighboring

ities,

which he historian

ichard

Häpke

was one

of

the

firsto describe.t

may

hus e

inscribed

n

the

underlying

ovements,

ften vermore r

ess

ong

periods

f

time,

which

ave

ife o

this

omplex.

oes it makeno

difference,

is it not rather ssential,o discernwhether particular rban-

rural

xchange,

particular

ndustrialr commercial

ompetition

is

somethingery

ew

n

the

fullness f tsbloomor

something

beginning

o

wither,

hethert s

a

resurgence

f the

distant

ast

or a

monotonous

eturn o

theusual

pattern?

Let us

concludewith

maxim hat

ucien

Febvre,

uring

he

last en

years

fhis

ife,

epeated

ll thetime:

History,

cience f

18P. Chombartde

Lauwe,

Paris et V

gglomération

arisienne,

aris,

P.U.F., 1952, I,

106.

19

Suzenne Frère

& Charles

Bettelheim,

neville

rançaise

moyenne.

uxerre

n 1950.

Paris,

rmand

olin,

Cahiers es

Sciences

olitiques,

o.

17,

1951.

20

PierreClément&

Natalie

Xydias,

Vienne-sur-l-Rhône.

ociologie

'uneville

rançaise.

Paris,

Armand

olin,

Cahiers es

Sciences

olitiques,

o.

71,

1955.







HISTORY AND THE SOCIAL

SCIENCES

187

the

past,

cience

of

the

present."

s not

history,

hedialectic

of

tem-

poralities, n explanation n itswayofthe social in all itsreality?

And therefore f the

present?

ts lesson n

thisdomain is to

warn

us about the event:Do not

think

nly

n

the

short erm.Do not

be-

lievethat

nly

hose ctorswho make noise

are the most uthentic.

There are otherswho matter ut who are

silent.But did we not all

know his

lready?

HI. COMMUNICATION

AND SOCIAL

MATHEMATICS

It

was

perhaps

n error o

spend

so much timeon the

agitated

frontier

f the shortterm.To tell the

truth,

he debate

going

on

theredoes not have much

mportance,

r at least

proceeds

without

any

useful novel dea. The criticaldebate lies

elsewhere-

mong

our

neighbors

who

are

swept

way by

the newest

xperiments

f

the

ocial

sciences,

nderthedouble abel of

"communication"nd

mathematics.

It's notgoingto be easytoplead the case thatno social analysis

can avoid historical imewhenwe're

dealing

with fforts

hat,

p-

parently

t

least,

ituate hemselves

ompletely

utsideof time.

In

any

case,

if

the readerwishes o

follow ur

argument

n

this

discussion

whether

n

agreement

r

not),

he wouldbe

well

dvised

to

be

ready

o

weigh

forhimself ach

of

the terms f a

vocabulary

that,

lthough

ertainly

ot

entirely

ew,

has been

reworked

n

the

discussions

aking lace

at thismoment.

We have

nothing

we need

to

repeat,

f

course,

bout

"events"

r the

"longue

urée,"

or much

tosay bout"structures,"lthough heword nd theconcept snot

untouched

y

uncertainties

nd current

iscussions.21

or

would t

be useful

o

inger

oo

long

over

he

words

synchrony"

nd "diach-

rony."

heir

meaning

s

clear,

lthough

heirrole in

any

concrete

social

analysis

s less

easy

to establish han t

might

eem.

n

effect,

in the

anguage

of

history

as

I

understand

t),

there

may

neverbe

perfect

ynchrony.

n

instantaneousmoment f

time,

n

which ll

temporalities

re

suspended,

s

a virtual

bsurdity

r,

which

s

al-

most hesame,extremelyontrived. ndwhich s almostthe same

thing,

here anbe no

simple

descentdownthe

slopes

of time.The

21

ee the

Colloque

ur es

Structures,

ie Sectionde l'École

pratique

es Hautes

Études,

ypewritten

ésumé,

958.







188

FernandBraudel

only

onceivable

hing

s to make series

f

descents,

ollowing

he

multiplend nnumerableivers ftime.Thesefew emindersnd

warnings

ill ufficeor hemoment.

But we need

to

be more

explicit

bout the

concepts

f "uncon-

scious

history,"

models,"

nd "socialmathematics."hese neces-

sary

emarksre

inked,

r rather illbe

linked,

n

a

problematic

common o all the

ocial

ciences.

"Unconscious

istory"

s,

of

course,

he

history

f the uncon-

scious

parts

of social

reality.

Men make their

history,

ut

they

do notmake t

as

they

wish."22his formula fMarx

larifies,

ut

does not xplain,heproblem.nfact, nder newname,t sonce

again

the

problem

f

the hort

erm,

f

microtime,"

fthe

pisod-

ic that s

being

posed

here.Men have

lways

ad the

mpression,

in

iving

heir

ives,

hat

hey

nderstand hat

s

happening ayby

day.

s

this onscious nd clear

ccount

adly

mistaken,

s so

many

historians avefor

long

ime

sserted?

inguistics

nce

thought

itcould

derive

verything

rom

ords.

istory

hought

tcouldde-

rive t ll from

vents.More

han

ne

contemporary

ommentator

has beenready obelieve hat ll isexplained y heYalta r Pots-dam

agreements,y

he ccidents fDien-Bien-PhurSakiet-Sidi-

Youssef,

r

by

he

aunching

fthe

putnik,

nother ind f

event,

equally mportant

n ts

way.

et us thus dmit

hat here xists t

a certain

istance social

unconscious. et us furthermoreon-

cede for he

ime

eing

hat his

nconscious e consideredcien-

tifically

icher han he

himmering

urface o

which ur

eyes

re

used.

Scientifically

icher

means

impler,

ithwider

mplications,

if

harder

o

uncover. ut he

distinction

etween

lear

urface nd

obscure epths, etween oise ndsilence,sdifficultodraw nd

uncertain. et us

add that unconscious"

istory-

hich alf he

time

oncerns

yclical hases

but

s

par

excellence

bout tructural

time-

s

clearly erceived

more

requently

han ne s

ready

o

ad-

mit.

ach of us has

the ense

that,

eyond

is

own

ife,

here ies

a

massive istorical

ast

whose

power

nd thrusts

e

recognizes

better,

tmust e

said,

han ts

aws

nd

direction. ndthis

history

did

not tart

ust

yesterday

in

economic

istory

or

xample),

ven

if

whatshappening odaysmore ivid o us. Therevolution,orit s a revolutionf hemind, as consistedn

confronting

his alf-

22

Cited

by

Claude

Lévi-Strauss,

nthropologie

tructurelle,

p.

cit.,

p.

30-31.'







HISTORY

AND

THE

SOCIAL

SCIENCES

189

darkness,

f

giving

t an ever

arger

role

beside,

even

in

place

of,

the event.

History

s

not the

only

disciplinepursuing

hese

new

ways.

On

the

contrary,

t has

been

merely

ollowing

n the

path

of

the social

sciences,

dapting

for

ts use

the new

instruments

f

knowledge

and

research

hat

have

been

constructed.

llustrating

his

point

re

the

"models,"

ometimes

more

or less

perfected,

ometimes

till

artisanal.

Models

are

nothing

ut

hypotheses,

xplanatory

ystems

firmly

inked

n the

form

f an

equation

or a

function:

=y,

or

x

causes

y.

A

never

occurs without

B

accompanying

t,

and

strict,

constant elations xistbetween he two.Once wehavea carefully

established

model,

one

can

apply

t across time

nd

space

to other

social

spheres

imilar

o the

one that

has

been studied

nd

on the

basis

of which

he

model was

created.

This

gives

he

model

a recur-

ring

validity.

These

explanatory

ystems

ary

nfinitely,

eflecting

he

temper-

ament,

he

calculations,

r the

objectives

f

the researcher-

ual-

itative

r

quantitative,

imple

or

complex,

mechanical

or

statisti-

cal. This lastdistinction oweto Lévi-Strauss. e callsmechanical

a

model

drawn

from

directly

bserved

reality,

mall-scale

eality

dealing

with

mall

human

groups

such

as

those created

by

ethnol-

ogists

bout

primitive

ocieties).

For vast

societies,

with

arge

pop-

ulations,

we

are

obliged

to

find

verages,

nd

therefore

e

use

sta-

tistical

methods.

But

these

sometimes

dubious

definitions

matter

little

The

crucial

point

for

me,

beforewe

may

establish

common

program

or

he

social

sciences,

s to

spell

out the

role and

the

im-

itsofmodels,which omeuserstendto nflate xcessively. emust

therefore

nce

again

invoke

he

dea of

multiple

emporalities,

n

relation

his

time

to

models;

for he

significance

nd

the

explana-

tory

value

of

models

depends

rather

closely

on

the duration

to

which

hey

efer.

To

illustrate

his

more

clearly,

et

us look

at some

particular

historical

models,23-

hat

s,

models invented

y

historians,

rude

and rudimentarymodels, seldom developed rigorously y true

scientific

methods

nd

never

expected

to achieve

a

revolutionary

mathematical

anguage-

still

nd

all,

models of

a sort.

23

m

tempted

o ook

t some

models"

hat conomists

ave een

using

nd

that

we

have een

mitating.







190

FernandBraudel

We

mentionedbovecommercial

apitalism

etween hefour-

teenthndeighteenthenturies. his s one ofthemodels hat ne

findsn

Marx's

writings.

t's

really nly

ompletely

alid

for

given

family

f

societies,

ver

particular

ime

period,

ven

f

t

opens

the

doorto all sorts f

extrapolations.

A

somewhat ifferent odel s sketchedn

my

book,24

bout

a

cycle

f

economic

evelopment

n

Italian ities etween he ix-

teenthnd

eighteenth

enturies,

hichwere

uccessively

enters

f

commerce,

f

"industries,"

nd

then

pecialized

n

banking.

his

last

ctivity

as the

lowest

o

come

nto

fullbloom nd the

low-

est todisappear. his modelwas more imitedn scopethan he

one

dealing

with ll of

commercial

apitalism,

ut twas therefore

perhaps

asier o extend

t to other

momentsftime nd

space.

t

notes

phenomenon

some

might

all t a

dynamic

tructure,

ut

all

historicaltructures

re to some

degreedynamic)

hat an

re-

cur

n

many

ifferent

ituations,

nd

s

easy

o

recognize. erhaps

this

s also true f

themodel

uggested y

Frank

pooner

nd me25

concerning

he

history

before,

uring,

nd after he

ixteenthen-

tury) fthepreciousmetals- old, ilver,ndcopper-ndcredit,

that lexible

ubstituteor he

metals.

hey

re all

players

n

the

market,

he

"strategy"

f

one

affecting

he

"strategy"

f

each of

the

others.t

wouldnotbe difficult

o

apply

his

model

eyond

he

privileged

nd

exceptionally

urbulentixteenth

entury

hat

we

analyzed.

ave not

omeeconomists

lready

ried

fter fashion

to

verify

he

old

quantitative

heory

f

money

or

ontemporary

underdeveloped

ountries?26

But he

possibilities

f

xtensionn

time f ll

thesemodels re

small ndeed omparedotheoneconceivedy heyoungAmeri-

can

historical

ociologist,

igmund

iamond.27

e

was

struck

y

the

double

anguage

f

the

dominant lass of

great

American i-

nanciersn

the

poch

f

Pierpont

organ.

here

wasone

anguage

used

within he

lass nd

another utside t.

This atter

as

n

fact

an

apologia

vis-à-vis

ublic pinion,

ustifying

he uccess fthefi-

nancier

s

the

ypical

riumph

fthe

elf-made

an,

he

necessary

24

La

Méditerranéet e

monde

méditerranéenV

poque

de

Philippe

I, Paris,

Armand

Colin, 949, . 264ff.

¿b

Les Métaux

monétairest économie

u XVIe iècle.

Rapports

u

Congrès

nternational

de

Rome, 955, V,

233-264.

26

Alexandre

Chabert,

tructure

conomique

t héorie

onétaire,aris,

Armand

Colin,

Pubi,

u Centre 'Études

conomiques,

956.

27

The

Regulation

f

he

American

usinessman,

ambridge,

MA,

1955.







HISTORY

AND

THE

SOCIAL SCIENCES 191

conditionof the

country's

rosperity.

e

saw

in this double lan-

guagethehabitual eaction fanydominant lassthat ees assaults

on

its

prestige

nd threats o

its

privileges.

o

defend

hemselves,

they

eek to

identify

heirfatewiththat

of the

society

r the na-

tion,

heir

rivate

nterest ith

he

public

nterest. iamond would

similarly

xplain

the evolution

f the dea

of

dynasty

r

empire,

f

the

British

ynasty

r the Roman

Empire.

This

kind of model is

clearly pplicable

cross

the centuries.

t

presumes

ertain

pecific

social

conditions,

ut

history

s fullof them.

t is trueover much

longer

ime-period

han the other

models have

discussed,

but at

the same time t deals withmoreprecise,morespecific ealities.

At the

limit,

s the mathematicians

ould

put

it,

this kind of

model

s close to

that f those

popular

models,

he almosttimeless

ones

of the

social mathematicians.

o

say they

re almost

timeless

means

n fact hat

hey

move

long

the dark and

unexplored

path-

ways

f the v

ry ongue

urée.

The various

accounts

we have

given

are a

quite

inadequate

introduction

o the science

and

theory

of models.

In

this

field,

historians re not at all in the avant-garde. heir models are at

best

bundles

of

explanations.

Our

colleagues

are much

more am-

bitious nd

advanced

n

their

research,

rying

o

make use

of

the

language

of

information,

ommunication,

nd

qualitative

mathe-

matics.

heir

merit-which

s considerable-

s to welcome

ntotheir

field

he subtle

anguage

of

mathematics,

language

however

hat,

given

vena

moment's

nattention,

an

escape

our control

nd run

away

with

tself,

God knows

where

nformation,

ommunication,

and

qualitative

mathematics

ll can be

placed

under the rather

wideumbrella f theterm, social mathematics."o it s there hat

we

must hine

our

lantern,

o the

degree

that

we

can.

Social

mathematics28

s at least

threedifferent

anguages

which

may

be

combined,

nd

there

may

be others.Mathematicians

ave

not

yet

exhausted

their

magination.

n

any

case,

there does

not

exist

single

mathematics,

r at

least this

s

the claim.

"One can-

not

speak

of

algebra

or

geometry,

ut an

algebra, geometry"

Th.

Guilbaud),whichdoes notsimplifyur task,or theirs.Three lan-

guages

then:

hat f

necessary

acts

something

s

given,

omething

28

See

especially

Claude

Lévi-Strauss,

ulletin nternational

es Sciences

ociales,

UNESCO,VI, 4,

and

more

generally

heentire

ighlynteresting

ssue,

itled:

Math-

ematics

nd the

ocialSciences."







192

Fernand

Braudel

else

followsfrom

t),

which s

the

domain of

traditional

mathe-

matics;that of randomfacts since Pascal), which s thedomain

of

probabilities;

nd

finally

hat of

conditional

facts,

neither

de-

termined

nor

random,

but

subject

to

certain

constraints,

o

rules

of

the

game,

such

as

the

game

"strategy"

f

Von

Neumann

and

Morgenstern,29

his

winning

trategy

hich

has

developed

beyond

the

bold

initial

principles

f

its

founders.

Game

strategy, y

util-

izing

sets,

groups,

calculations

of

probabilities,

pens

the

way

to

"qualitative"

mathematics.t

becomes

possible

to

proceed

from

b-

servations

o

mathematical

ormulas

without

aving

to

go

via

the

difficult ath of measurements nd long statistical alculations.

One

can

proceed

directly

rom

ocial

analysis

o

mathematical or-

mulas,

hall

we

say

to a

calculating

machine.

Of

course,

we

have to

prepare

the task

of

our

machine

which

cannot

accept

or

manipulate

everything

hat

may

be

fed

into

it.

It is

indeed

because of

real

machines,

f

the

rules

by

which

they

function

o

permit

ommunicationsn

the

most

material

ense

of

the

word,

that a

science of

information

was

invented

nd

devel-

oped. The authorofthisarticle s byno meansa specialist n this

difficult

omain.

The

search

going

on

to

construct

translation

machine,

which

he

has

followed

with

nterest,

f

distantly,

hrows

him,

as it

does

others,

nto

the

depths

of

reflection.

onetheless,

two

facts

eem

clear:

(1)

such

machines,

uch

mathematical

os-

sibilities,

o

exist;

and

(2)

we

have to

prepare

the

social

part

of

social

mathematics,

hich

re

no

longer

only

our

older

traditional

mathematics-

urvesof

prices,

wages,

nd

birthrates.

So,

if

the

new

mathematical

perations

re

often

oo

difficult

forus, thepreparation fsocial reality or hisuse- howpartsare

linked

ogether,

ow

they

re

separated-

s

something

hat

equires

our

close

attention.

he

prior

treatment

eretofore

as

almost

al-

ways

been

the

same:

choose a

restricted

nit of

observation,

uch

as

a

"primitive"

ribeor

a

single

demographic

ase,

so

that

we

can

examine

almost

everything

t

first

and.

Then

we

proceed

to

find

the

correlations

etween

he

elements

we

have

singled

ut,

ll

their

possible

interactions.

uch

rigorously

etermined

elations

offer

us

the

very quations

from

whichthemathematicianshendrawtheir onclusions nd

possible

extensionntoa model hat umma-

rizes

everything,

r

rather

akes

ccountof

everything.

29

The

Theory f

Games

nd

Economic

ehavior,

rinceton,

1944.

See the

brilliant

review

yJean

ourastié,

ritique,

o.

51,

Oct.

1951.







HISTORY

AND THE SOCIAL

SCIENCES

193

A thousand

different

esearch

questions

are thus

opened up.

One examplewillbe moreusefulthan a longexposition.Claude

Lévi-Strauss

ffers

imself s

an excellent

uide,

whom

we

should

follow.

et us

look at

one sector

of his

research,

hat

of the science

of communication.30

"In

every

ociety,

ommunications

perate

at three

different

levels"-

women,

goods

and

services,

nd

messages.31

et

us

grant

that

here xist

t

these

different

evels

different

anguages,

ut an-

guages

all the

same.

So

should we

not have

the

right

o treat

hem

as

languages,

or even

as the

anguage,

nd

hence to utilize

n

their

analysis heamazingprogress f linguistics, r moreprecisely,f

phonemics,

which

"cannot

fail to

play

the same

renovating

ole

vis-à-vis

he

social

sciences

that

nuclear

physics,

or

example,

has

played

n

the

field

f the

exact sciences?"32

hat is a

big

statement,

but

sometimes

uch

statements

re

ustified.

Like

history

hatwas

trapped

by

the

event,

inguistics

was

trapped by

words

the

rela-

tion

of

words

to the

object,

the

historical volution

f

words)

but

could

escape

via

the

phonological

revolution.

eneath

the

word,

linguistics ttached tself o the sound elementwe call the pho-

neme,

which

was

indifferent

o

meaning

but attentive

o

location,

to the

sounds

surrounding

t,

to

the

grouping

f

words,

o

infra-

phonemic

tructures,

o the

entire

eality

f

anguage

thatwas

un-

derneath,

hat

was

unconscious.

n the

basis

of the several

dozens

of

phonemes

hatwe

then

find

n

all

theworld's

anguages,

henew

mathematical

ask

took

form.

At that

point,

inguistics,

r at least

a

part

of

inguistics,

scaped

over

the

past

twenty ears

he world

f

the social

sciences

to

cross

over

the "mountain

ass

into

the exact

sciences."

To extend

he

concept

f

anguage

to the

elementary

tructures

of

kinship,

f

myths,

f

ceremonies,

f economic

exchanges,

hat

is,

to locate

this

difficult

ut

salutary

mountain

pass,

is

the

minor

miracle

chieved

by

Claude

Lévi-Strauss.

e

did this

first f all

for

matrimonial

xchange,

hat

primal

anguage

essential

forhuman

communications,

o the

point

hat here

xists

no

society,

rimitive

or

not,

n

which

ncest,

marriage

within

he narrow

family

nit,

is notforbidden. rgo,a language.

In this

anguage,

he

sought

o

30

This entire

discussion

s

drawn

fromhis recent

book,

Anthropologie

tructurale,

op.

cit.

31

Ibid.,

p.

326.

™

Ibid.,

p.

39.







194

Fernand

Braudel

find basic element

orresponding

o the

phoneme,

his "atomic"

element fkinship,which urguideuncoveredn his doctoraldis-

sertation

n 1949.33

his unit

n its

simplest

orm s the

man,

the

wife,

he

child,

and the maternal

uncle of the

child. On the basis

of this

quadrangular

unit,

and

looking

at all the

known

systems

of

marriage among

primitive

eoples

(and

they

re

numerous),

the mathematicians

an calculate the

possible

combinations

nd

results.With

the assistance

of the mathematician

André

Weill,

Lévi-Strauss

ucceeded

n

translating

nto mathematical

erms he

anthropologist's

bservations.

he derived

model has to test

the

validity,hestabilityf thesystem,nd indicatethe solutions hat

the atter

mplies.

It is clear

what

he

objective

was

in this

research-to

go beyond

surfaceobservation

o reach the realm of unconscious

or

barely

conscious

elements,

o reduce such

reality

nto small

units,

mall

identicalbrush

strokes,

whose

exact relationsone

could

analyze

with

precision.

It

is at

this

I

would

call it

myself

certain kind

of]

microsociological

evel

thatone

mayhope

to

perceive

he most

general awsofstructure,s the inguist iscovershisat the nfra-

phonemic

evel

and the

physicist

t

the inframolecular

evel,

that

is at the evel

of

the atom."34

his

game

can be

played,

of

course,

in

many

differentirections.

o,

what

s more didacticthan to see

Lévi-Strauss

ursue

t,

this

time,

with

myths

nd,

amusingly,

ith

cuisine

another

anguage).

Indeed,

he reduces

myths

o a series

of

elementary

ells,

the

mythemes,

nd reduces the

anguage

of cook-

books

light-heartedly)

nto

gustemes.

n each

case,

he is

in

search

of

deep,

unconscious evels. am

not

aware,

when

am

speaking,

f

thephonemes am using.Neither m I normally onscious,when

I

am at the dinner

table,

of

"gustemes,"

f

such

things

xist. But

each

time,

his

game

of

subtle,

xact

relations

keeps

me

company.

Would

the ast

word

of

sociological

research henbe

to

ocate these

simple mysterious

elations

n

every anguage,

to translate hem

into a Morse

code,

that

s,

the

universal

mathematical

anguage?

That seems to be the ambition f the

new

social mathematics.

ut

may say,

without

miling,

hatthis s an

entirely

ifferent

tory/

history?

33

Les structureslémentairese la

parenté.

aris, P.U.F.,

1949. See

Anthropologie

truc-

turale,

p.

47-62.

34

Anthropologie

tructurale,

p.

cit.,

pp.

42-43.







HISTORY

AND THE

SOCIAL SCIENCES

195

Let us now

reintroduce uration. have said that

models

have

a

varyingife-span: hey re valid for he timeofthereality hey re

talking

bout.

And,

for he social

observer,

his

ime s

primordial,

foreven

more

important

han the

deep

structures f life are its

moments

f

rupture,

ts

brusque

or

slow

deterioration nder

the

impact

f

contradictoryressures.

I

have

compared

models to

ships.

Once the

ship

is

built,

what

interestsme

is to launch

t,

to see

if

t

floats,

hen

to make t

sail,

as

I

wish,

up

and

down the waters

f time.

A

shipwreck lways

onsti-

tutes

the most

significant

moment.For

example,

the

explanation

thatFrankSpooner and I gave about the relationsbetween the

various

precious

metalsdoes

not seem to work efore

he fifteenth

century.

Before

that

time,

the

competition

between

the metals

seems

to have been

so violent

hat

what

happened

n later

periods

did not seem

to occur then.

Well,

n

that

case,

we

needed to

find

out

why.

imilarly,

t

s

necessary

o understand

why,

histime

go-

ing

forward

n time

to the

eighteenth

entury, avigation

with

ur

too

simple

hip

becomes

first

ifficult,

hen

mpossible,

iven

the

abnormalexpansionofcredit. believethatresearchmustcease-

lessly

move

from

ocial

reality

o the

model,

then

back

again,

and

so

on,

by

a series

of

alterations,

f

patiently

enewed

voyages.

The

model

s thus

uccessively

way

o

explain

the

structure,

nd an

in-

strument

o

test,

ompare,

nd

verify

he

solidity

nd

durability

f

a

given

tructure.

f I

were

to createa

model

based

on the

present

day,

would

check

t

mmediatelygainst

this

reality,

hen

push

it

backwards

n

time,

f

possible

to its moment f birth.

Once this s

done,

could

estimate ts

probable

ife-span

p

to the next

rupture,

interms ftheconcomitantmovementf other ocial realities.Un-

less,

using

t

as a

way

of

making

omparisons,

circulated

t across

timeand

space,

looking

forotherrealities hat

could illuminate

thanks

o

using

the model.

Am

I

wrong

o

think hatthe

models of

qualitative

mathemat-

ics,

such

as we

have seen

up

to

now,35

ould

not lend

themselves

to such

voyages

n

time,

because

they

ravel

long

a

single

one of

the

nnumerable

emporalities,

hatof the

very

ongue

urée,

which

knowsno chance occurrences,no cyclicalphases,no ruptures?

turn

nce

again

to

Lévi-Strauss,

ecause his

usages

in thisdomain

35

m

speaking

pecifically

f

qualitative

athematics,

uch s

used

n

game

trat-

egy.

would

haveto

discuss

ifferently

he

kindof classicalmodels

hat conomists

elaborate.







196

FernandBraudel

seem to me the

most

ntelligent,

he

clearest,

he most

deeply

root-

ed insocialexperience, romwhich ll analysismust tart nd then

return. et

us

note that

he

repeatedly

iscusses

phenomena

that

move

extremelylowly,

f

at all.

All

kinship ystems ersist

ecause

human

life

s not

possible

over a certain evel of

consanguinity,

and thus t

requires

mall

groups

to

open

themselves

o the

outside

world

n

order to

survive.

Hence,

the ncesttaboo is a

constant

f

the

longue

urée.

Myths,

which

develop

slowly,

lso

correspond

o

structures

hathave

an

extreme

ongevity.

n

collecting

he

Oedipus

myths,

ne doesn't

have

to decide

which

s the

oldest,

since the

problem s to look at therangeofvariation nd therewitho illu-

minate he

underlying eep

articulations hat

govern

hem.But et

us

suppose

that

our

colleague

would be interested ot

in

a

myth

but

n

the

mages

and successive

nterpretations

f

"Machiavellian-

ism,"

hathe was interested

n

thebasic elements f a rather

imple

doctrine,

whichwas

widespread

following

ts nitial

expression

n

the sixteenth

entury.

n this

ase,

he

wouldbe facedwith

uptures

and

upheavals

n the

very

tructure f

Machiavellianism,

ince this

system oes nothavethequasi-eternalheatricalolidityf a myth.

It

reacted

to

the events nd the

twists,

he

multiple

icissitudes

f

history.

n

a

word,

t did not find tself n

the

tranquil

nd monoto-

nous roads of the

longue

durée.

The

procedure

that Lévi-Strauss

suggests

f

ooking

for

mathematized tructuress not

ocated

only

at the

microsociological

evel,

but also at the

meeting-point

f

the

infinitely

mall and the

veryongue

urée.

In

point

of

fact,

s

revolutionaryualitative

mathematics on-

demned

to

follow

nly

the

paths

of the

very ongue

urée}

f

so,

we

shall findthat this restricted ame limitsus to truths hat are a

bit

those

of

eternal

man.

Elementary

ruths,

phorisms

f

popular

wisdom,

malcontents

might

all them.

We

might eply

hat

hey

re

essential

ruths,

ruths

hat lluminate nce

again

the

very

ases of

social life.But that s not the

whole matter nder

discussion.

I do

not

in

fact

believe that uch

attempts,

r

analogous

ones,

cannot be conducted

outside the

very ongue

durée.The data for

qualitative

ocial mathematics

re not numbersbut

relationships,

relations hathave to be rather igorouslyefined o be able to as-

sign

them

mathematical

ign,

o

thatone can

study

ll the math-

ematical

possibilities

f these

signs,

forgetting

bout the

social re-

alities

they

represent.

The value of the

conclusions

depends

on

the

value of the

nitial

observation,

he choices that solate the es-







HISTORY

AND

THE

SOCIAL

SCIENCES

197

sential

lements

f

the observed

phenomenon

nd determine

heir

relationswithin hisphenomenon.t becomesunderstandablewhy

social mathematics

refers

he

kind of models Lévi-Strauss

alls

mechanical,

hat

s,

derived

from mall

groups

n

which

each

in-

dividual

s,

so to

speak,

directly

bservable and

in

which

a

very

homogeneous

social

life allows

one

to define with

certainty

he

human

relations,

which

re

simple

nd

concrete,

nd

do not

vary

much.

So-called

statistical

models,

on the other

hand,

deal with

arge,

complex

societies

in

which

observations

can

be made

only

by

meansofaverages, hat s,usingtraditionalmathematics. ut once

one establishes

hese

verages,

nothing

hen

prevents

he

observer

from

stablishing,

t the evel

of

groups

rather

han

of

ndividuals,

the

basic

relations

o which

we

referred

nd which

re

necessary

for

he elaboration

of

qualitative

mathematics.

o

my

knowledge,

there

have

been

no

attempts

f

this kind. But we

are

at the

early

stages

of this

kind of work.

For

the

moment,

whether

n

psycholo-

gy,

conomics,

r

anthropology,

veryone

as been

working

n the

ways definedwith eferenceo Lévi-Strauss. utqualitative ocial

mathematics

ill

not have

shown

ts

mettle ntil

t

has been

used

to

analyze

a

modern

society,

with

ts

tangled

problems

nd

mul-

tiple

rhythms

f

life.Let's

suppose

that

this adventure

will

tempt

one

of our

mathematical

ociologists.

et

us

suppose

further

hat

it

brings

bout

a

necessary

evision

f the

methods

hitherto

sed

by

the

new

mathematics,

hat

they

no

longer

imitthemselves

o

what

shall call

this

time

the too

ongue

urée.

hey

would

have

to

rediscover

he

diversity

f

ife,

ll

its

movements,

ll

its

temporali-

ties, ll itsruptures,ll itsvariations.

IV.

THE HISTORIAN'S

TIME,

THE SOCIOLOGIST'S

TIME

After

foray

nto

the land

of timeless

ocial

mathematics,

return

o

time,

o

duration.

And as an

incorrigible

istorian,

re-

main astonished

hat

ociologists

ave

been able

to

escape

it. But

t

is because their ime snotmy ime: t s much ess mperious,

lso

less

concrete,

nd never t theheartof their

problems

nd their

reflections.

The historian

n

fact

never

departs

from

historical

ime.

Time

sticks

o

his

thought

ike

soil to

the

gardener's

pade.

Of course







198

Fernand

Braudel

he

may

dream

of

escaping

t.

Amidst he

anguish

of

1940,

Gaston

Roupnel36wrotesome words whichmake everyhistorianwince.

A similar

thought

s to be found earlier

n the

writings

f Paul

Lacombe,

a

first-rate

istorian: Time

is

nothing

n

itself;

bjec-

tively,

t s

merely

n

idea of ours."37

ut are these

really scapes?

I

myself, uringmy

rather

gloomy

aptivity,truggledmightily

o

escape

the chronicle

of those difficult

ears

1940-1945).

Refus-

ing

events

nd the time

of those eventswas

a

way

of

moving

to

the

margins,

o

shelter,

o look at

things

rom urther

way,udge

them

better,

nd not believe

too much

n them.One could move

from he short erm o the somewhatess short erm nd finallyo

very ong

time

if

this

xists,

t mustbe the

timeof the

sages).

Then

when

youget

there,

ou

can

stop

and

look at

everything

nce

again

and

reconstruct,

eeing everything

urning

round

yourself.

uch

an

operation

has

what

t takes to

tempt

historian.

But these uccessive

hifts

n

perspective

o not

truly

moveone

outside

the time of the

world,

he

time

of

history,

mperious

be-

cause irreversible

nd because it flows

t the

very hythm

f the

ro-

tationofthe earth. n fact, hetemporalitieshatwedifferentiate

are bound

together.

t

is

not

so muchduration hat

s the

creation

of

our

mind,

but

the

splitting p

of this

duration.And

yet

these

fragments

ome

together gain

at the end

of our

work.

The

longue

durée,

yclical hases conjoncture),

nd

events

it

ogether

asily,

or

they

ll are

measurements

n the same scale.

Hence,

to entermen-

tally

ntoone of these

temporalities

s to be

part

of all

of them.The

philosopher,

who

pays

attention

o the

subjective

lement nternal

to the

concept

of

time,

never

feelsthe

weight

f historical

ime,

concrete, niversal ime uch as the timeof thecyclical hasesthat

ErnestLabrousse

ays

out

n

the

beginning

f his book.38

He is like

a

voyager, lways

rue to

himself,

who

travels

he

whole

world

nd

insists n the same

constraints,

hatever

e

the

country

n

which

he has

landed,

or the

politicalrégime

nd social order

to

which

he

is submitted.

For

the

historian,

verything

egins

and ends

in

time,

math-

ematical

time,

demiurge, asy

to

mock,

time that s external

o

men,"exogenous" s the economistswouldsay, time thatpush-

36

Histoire t

destin,

aris: Bernard

Grasset, 1943,

passim, sp. p.

169.

37

Revuede

synthèseistorique,

900,

p.

32.

38

La crisede l'économie

rançaise

la

veillede la Révolution

rançaise,

aris, P.U.F.,

1944,

ntroduction.







HISTORY


199

es

us

forward,

onstrains

s,

sweeps away

our individual imes

of

manyvarieties- es, he world's mperious ime.

The

sociologists,

f

course,

do not

accept

this too

simple

con-

cept.

They

are

much

closer

to the "dialectic

of duration"

s ex-

pounded

by

Gaston

Bachelard.39

ocial

time

s

simply

ne dimen-

sion

of the

social

reality

ne

is

studying.

t s internal

o this

reality

as

it

might

e to

an

individual,

ne

sign

among

others hat

t util-

izes,

one

more

property

hat marks

t out

as a

particular

reality.

The

sociologist

s not the

least limited

by

this

manipulable

time,

which

he can

divide

up,

freeze,

llow

to

flow

gain,

as

he wishes.

Historical ime ends tselfmuch esswell, s I previouslyaid,to a

flexible

ouble

game

of

synchrony

nd

diachrony.

t does

not

really

allow

one to

think

f ife

s a mechanism

ne can

freeze

n order

to

present,

s

one

wishes,

n

immobile

picture.

This

disagreement

s more

fundamental

han t

may

eem. The

sociologist's

ime

s

simply

ot ours.

The

deep

structure

f our

pro-

fession

s

averse

to

it. Our

time

s a

measure,

ike the economist's

time.When

a

sociologist

ells

us that a

structure

ontinually

e-

stroystself nlyto be reconstructed, e readily ccepttheexpla-

nationwhich

historical

bservation

n fact onfirms.

ut

we

want

to

know,

n

line with

our

customary

emands,

the exact

duration

of

these

positive

nd

negative

movements.

conomic

cycles,

he

ebb and flow

f material

ife,

re measurable.

A

social

structural

crisis

must

lso

be

placed

in

time,

hrough

ime,

nd

situate tself

both

absolutely

nd within

he

context

f concomitant

tructural

movements.

What

is

of most

nterest o

the historian

s the

criss-

crossing

f

these

movements,

heir

nteraction,

nd the

moments

whentheybreak down.These are all things hat can onlybe es-

tablished

within

he

uniform

ime of the

historians,

he

general

measure

of all

these

phenomena,

nd

not

in

multitudinous

ocial

times

particular

o each

of these

phenomena.

A historian

must

formulate

uch

contrarian

remarks,

ightly

or

wrongly,

ven when

he reads

the work

f a

sympathetic,

lmost

fraternal

ociologist

uch as

Georges

Gurvitch.

id not a

philoso-

pher40 ecently efinehim as someonewho "forcedhistory pon

sociology"?

et,

even n his

work,

n historian

ecognizes

neither

39

Dialectique

e

a

durée,

aris.

P.U.F.,

2nd

ed.,

1950.

40

Gilles

Granger,

Événement

t structure

ans les

sciences e

l'homme,

ahiers de

l'Institut

e Science

conomique

ppliqué,

érie

M,

No.

1,

41-42.







200

Fernand

Braudel

his durationsnor his

temporalities.

he vast social edifice

shall

we call it the model) is organized byGurvitch n fiveessential

architectural

illars:

social

strata,

mall

groups

sociabilités),

ocial

groups,global

societies,

imes.41 his last

scaffolding,

hatof tem-

poralities,

s

the

newest,

nd the ast to be

constructed,

lmost ike

an

afterthought.

The

temporalities

f

Georges

Gurvitch re

multiple.

He de-

scribes whole series of them:the timeof

slow-movingongue

u-

rée,

llusory

imeor the timeof

surprise,

he timeof

rregular

eat,

timethat s

cyclical

r

running

n

place,

the timethat s behind t-

self, imethat lternates etweenfalling ehind and gettinghead

of

tself,

he timethat s ahead of

tself,

xplosive

ime.42 ow

can

this be

convincing

o the

historian?With

such a

wide

range

of

colors,

t becomes

impossible

to

reconstitute

nitary

white

ight,

which

s

indispensable

o him. He realizes

quickly

s

well

that uch

chameleon-like ime s one

more

way,

ne

supplementaryign,

to

refer,

without

dding

anything,

o the

categories

previously

ut-

lined.

n

the construct f

our

friend, ime,

he ast

category,imply

locates tself mongall the others. t adaptsitself o each of these

homes,

to the

requirements

f thesocial

strata,

he small

groups,

the social

groups,

the

global

societies. t's a different

ay

of

writ-

ing,

without

ny

real

changes,

the same

equations.

Each social

re-

ality

reates

ts

times nd its

evels

of

time,

ike

common

mollusks.

But

what

do

we historians

ain thereby?

he

whole

rchitecture f

this deal

city

s static.

History

s absent from t. The

world's

ime,

historical

ime,

s located in it like

an Aeolian

wind,

mprisoned

in

a

goatskin.

t is not to

history

hat

the

sociologists,

onsciously

or not,are opposed, but to the times ofhistory,hisreality hat

remains

violent,

ven when one

wants

to tame

it,

to

diversify

t.

This

constraint rom

which

he historian

ever

scapes

is

one

from

which he

sociologists

lmost

always

scape.

They

evade

it,

either

in

the

always present

nstantaneous

moment,

s

though

t

were

suspended

n

time,

r in

the

repetitive henomena

which re not

located in

any particular

ime.Thus

they

go

one of

two

opposite

ways,

o the strictest orm f

episodic

time,

r to

the

ongest ongue

durée. s such an evasion

legitimate?

hat is

the real debate be-

41

ee

my

o doubt

oo

polemical

rticle,

Georges

urvitch

t a

discontinuitéu

social,"

Annales

.S.C.,

No.

3, 1953,

47-361.

42

ee

Georges

Gurvitch,

éterminismesociauxt

iberté

umaine,aris, .U.F., 955,

38-40

and

passim.







HISTORY


201

tween

historians

nd

sociologists,

ven

forhistorians

f different

outlooks.

I

don't

know

f

this

rticle hat

s too

outspoken,

oo

supported

by

examples

as

is the custom

of

historians,

will

meet

with

he

ap-

proval

of

sociologists

nd

our other

neighbors.

suspect

not. It

would

not be

very

seful

n

any

case

to

repeat,

s a sort

of conclu-

sion,

ts

leitmotiv,

hich

we

have

argued

throughout.

f

history

s

called

by

nature

to

give

a

prime

consideration

o

temporalities,

o

all the

movements

nto

which

t can

be

distinguished,

he

longue

durée eemstous theone amongthem hat s mostusefulfor om-

mon

observation

nd reflection

y

all the

social sciences.

s it ask-

ing

too much

of

our

neighbors

hat,

when

they

hink bout

how

to

proceed,

they

elate

their

ssessments

nd

their

indings

o

this

axis?

For

historians,

ot all

of

whom

agree

with

me,

there would

follow

rom

his

complete hange

n orientation

s well.

Their

n-

stinctive

reference

s

to

engage

n short-term

istory.

his

has the

complicitccordofthesacrosanct urricula f theuniversity.n re-

cent

rticles,

ean-Paul

artre43

einforces

his

point

of view

when,

in

his

protest

gainst

what

s

both too

simple

and

too

ponderous

in

Marxism,

e makes

an

argument

n

favor

f

biographical

detail

and

the

rich

reality

f

the

episodic.

One hasn't

said

everything

once

one

has "situated"

laubert

s a

bourgeois,

or

Tintoretto s

a

petty

ourgeois.

completely gree.

But each

time,

he

study

f

the

concrete

case-

Flaubert,

Valéry,

r

the

foreign

policy

of the

Gironde-

eads

Sartre

back

to the

deep

structural

ontext.

His

analysismovesfrom he surface o thedepthsofhistorynd cor-

responds

to

my

own

preoccupations.

t

would

do so even

more

f

the

hourglass

were

overturned

n two

enses-

from heevent

o the

structure,

hen

from tructures

nd

models

to the event.

Marxism

s a whole

population

f

models. artre

protests

gainst

the

rigidity,

he

chematic

rguments,

he

nadequacy

of the model

in the

name

of the

particular

nd the

ndividual. would

oin

his

protest

with

few

nuances)-

not however

gainst

the

model,

but

againsttheuse one has made of it,the use one believesone has

been

authorized

o makeofit. The

genius

of

Marx,

the secretof

his

lasting

power,

s thathe was

the

first o invent

eal

social

mod-

43

"Fragment

'un

ivre

paraître

ur

Tintoret,"

es

Temps

odernes,

ov.

1957,

nd

the

previously

ited rticle.







202

FernandBraudel

els,

based on the

historical

ongue

urée. hese models

have

been

frozenn their imple orm,ytreatinghem s immutableaws,

as a

priori

utomatic

xplanations,

niversallypplicable

o all situ-

ations nd all

societies.

Whereas

f

one

allowed

hem o enter

he

changing

ivers f

time,

heir

rameworkouldbe seen to be ob-

vious,

or t s a

solid,

well-knit odel. t

would

be

constantlyp-

plicable,

ut

n

nuanced

orms,

uccessively

lurred r

rekindled

by

he

presence

f

other

tructures,

lso

subject

o

rules,

ifferent

ones,

nd hence o other

models.

How

one

has shackled he cre-

ative

ower

f

themost

owerful

ocial

nalysis

fthe ast

entury.

Itwill nly ind tsforce nd tsyouthnce gainby urningothe

longue

urée.

Might

add that

present-day

arxism eemsto me

to be the

very ortrait

f

the

dangers

n

any

ocialscience hat s

too enamored f

the

pure

model,

f

themodelfor he

ake

of

the

model.

In

conclusion,

hat would ike o

underlines

well

s that he

longue

urées

only

ne of

the

possibilities

f

common

anguage

with he ocial

ciences.

have

pointed

utthe

pluses

nd minuses

ofthe ttemptsfthenew ocialmathematics.here re still th-ers.The new mathematicsre

very

eductive,

ut

the

old

kind,

whose uccess s so

obvious

n

economics-

he most dvanced f

thehuman

ciences- oes not

deserve he

cynical

emarksome-

times

made.

Huge

measurements

ay

till

e

expected

n this

las-

sical

domain,

ut

there re teamsof

calculators nd

calculating

machines

onstantly

eing

erfected.

believe

n

the

utility

f

ong

statistical

equences,

nd n the

need to

push

hese

measurements

and the esearch

ver urtherack n

time.

Many

eams re

already

doing tfor he ighteenthentury,ut heyrealsobeginningo

do it

now

for

he

eventeenthnd

even

more he

ixteenthentu-

ries. tatistical

easurementsf

unexpected

istorical

ength

re

now

opening

orus the

depths

f the

Chinese

past.44

o doubt

statistics

implifyhings

n

order o understand

hem etter. ut

all science

roceeds

rom he

omplex

o the

imple.

However,

etus not

forget

ne

last

anguage,

ne ast

family

f

models,

o

to

speak-

he

necessary

eduction f all social

reality

to the pace toccupies.We arespeaking fgeographynd ecol-

ogy,

without

arrying

n thesedifferencesn

vocabulary. eogra-

44

Otto

Berkelbach,

an der

Sprenkel,

Population

tatistics f

Ming

China,"

B.S.O.A.S.,

951;

Marianne

inger,

Zur

Finanz- nd

Agrargeschichte

er

MingDynas-

tie,

1368-1643,"

inica,

932.







HISTORY

AND THE

SOCIAL SCIENCES

203

phy

too often hinks f itself s a world

part,

and that s a

pity.

It should istento Vidal de la Blache,who did his analysesnotin

terms

f time

and

space,

but rather

n

termsof

space

and social

reality.

hat

makes

geography

elevant o all of the social sciences.

As for

cology,

t seems to be a word that

permits

he

sociologist

to talk

of

geography

without

dmitting

t,

nd thusto indicatethe

issues

that

pace

poses

for,

r

even

more

reveals

by,

ttentive

bser-

vation.

patial

models are

maps

wherein ocial

reality

s

projected

and

partially xplained,

models valid

for ll

the

temporalities

but

especially

hat f the

ongue

urée)

nd for ll social

categories.

But

social science ignoresthem to an astonishing egree. I have of-

ten

thought

hat

one of the

superiorities

f French ocial sciences

was

the

geographical

chool of Vidal de la

Blache,

whose

spirit

and

lessonswe

deeply

regret

re

todaybetrayed.

All

the social sci-

ences

should

open

themselves o that "ever

greatergeographical

concept

of humankind" hat

Vidal de la Blache called for

lready

in

1903.45

In practice- or this articlehas a practicalobjective- would

hope

that

the social sciences

would for

the

time

being

stop

argu-

ing

so much

bout their

eciprocal

orders-what

s or is not social

science,

what

s

or is not a structure. et

us rather

ry

o find he

common

ines

of our

research,

f

uch there

be,

which

might

rient

a

collective esearch

rogram

round themes hat

might ermit

s

to reach

an initial

convergence.

personally

hink hese

common

lines are

mathematization,

patial

specification,

nd

longue

durée.

But

I

would

be

curious to hear what

other

specialists

might

pro-

pose. For this articlehas been placed inAnnales .S.C., quitede-

liberately,

nder the

category

f "Debates and

Combats." t seeks

to

lay

on the

table,

not

resolve,

ome

problems

n

which

ach

of us

unhappily,

n terms f his

special

field,

s

exposed

to obvious

risks.

These

pages

are

a call fordiscussion.

45

Revuede

synthèse

istorique,

903,

p.

239.

Author(s) Fernand Braudel and Immanuel Wallerstein - History and the Social Sciences the Longue...

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Transcript of Author(s) Fernand Braudel and Immanuel Wallerstein - History and the Social Sciences the Longue...