Biography. Fernand Braudel and his vision of history The most important dates in Braudel's life and teaching work
BRAUDELE, FERNAND(Braudel, Fernand) (1902–1985). French historian and organizer of science. Fernand Braudel was born on August 24, 1902 in Lumeville (Mace department), near Verdun. The son of a rural teacher, he spent his childhood in the village, on his grandmother's farm. In 1908 the family moved to Paris. In 1913–1920, Braudel studied at the Voltaire Lycée, then entered the Sorbonne, from which he graduated in 1923. He hoped to get a teaching position high school in Bar-le-Duc, a town not far from his home, but these hopes were not realized. In 1923 he went to Algeria, which was then a French colony, and became a history teacher, first in Constantine and then at the Algiers Lyceum. There he worked until 1932 and there he met his future wife, Paulo. During the same period (1925–1926), Braudel underwent military service in a group of occupying French forces in Germany.
However, he aspired to a scientific career. Contrary to the recommendations of the Sorbonne professors, who advised him to devote his doctoral dissertation to the history of Germany, he began studying the past of Spain. Already in the summer of 1927, Braudel conducted his research in the archives and libraries of Salamanca (Spain), collecting historical material for his dissertation Philip II, Spain and the Mediterranean. In addition, he visits other places in the Mediterranean, in particular, in 1934 - Dubrovnik (Yugoslavia), where, according to him, he sees the 16th century with his own eyes.
In 1932 Braudel began teaching in Paris. At the same time, his friendship and collaboration began with Lucien Febvre (1878–1956), professor of history at the College de France. Further fate Braudel is closely associated with Lucien Febvre and his journal "Annals of Economic and Social History" ( Annales d'histoire économique et sociale), which Febvre and Marc Bloch organized in 1929. The general orientation of the journal revised the topics, research methods and the very understanding of the subject of historical science. Febvre called for “another history,” which included not only the history of wars and accessions to thrones, but also the study of all sides everyday life people during the interwar periods.
In 1935 Braudel went to Brazil, where he was offered a position as a professor at the University of Sao Paulo. In 1937 he returned to France, and in next year begins work at the Practical School of Higher Studies (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes) in Paris. His friendship with Lucien Febvre grows stronger, and Braudel decides to write a book about the medieval Mediterranean under the leadership of Febvre. But the war interfered with these plans.
In 1939 Braudel joined the French army. In 1940 he was captured and spent the next five years in prison camps, first in Mainz, then, from 1943, in a concentration camp strict regime on the Baltic coast (near Lübeck). While in captivity they wrote a work The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean world in the era of Philip II(La Méditerranée et le monde méditerranéen à l "époque de Philippe II), which in 1947 was defended as a dissertation, and in 1949 was published and opened the way for Braudel to big science. They say that for five years he worked on scraps of school notebooks, on the corner of the table, without any documents or books, from memory, from the knowledge that he accumulated while working in the archives and libraries of Spain, Venice, Ragusa (Dubrovnik) . It is no less surprising that he managed to send these records from the concentration camp to France, Febvres. By that time, Febvre remained the only head of the “Annals school”; in 1944, Marc Bloch was shot for participating in the Resistance movement.
After the end of the war and his liberation, Braudel returned to France and worked at the Sorbonne. In November 1947, Febvre and Charles Moraze, with money from the Rockefeller Foundation, founded Section VI (social and economic sciences) of the Practical School of Higher Studies (VI section de l "Ecole pratique des hautes études).
In 1949 Braudel moved from the Sorbonne to the Collège de France, where he became head of the department of modern civilization.
After the death of Lucien Febvre in 1956, Braudel became president of the IV section of the Practical School of Higher Studies and remained so until 1973. He took Febvre's position at the College de France and became editor-in-chief of the Annales (from 1946 to 1994 the magazine was called Annales. (Economics. Societies. Civilizations.)" (“Annales. Economies. Sociétés. Civilisations”).
In 1958, Braudel's seminal methodological article was published. History and social sciences: time of great duration.
In 1959, he conceived the creation of an open scientific center and library called the “House of Human Sciences” (“Maison des sciences de l’homme”). In 1970, with the help of the Ford Foundation, the “House of Human Sciences” finally opened, and Braudel became its chief administrator.
In 1967 Braudel published the first version of the 1st volume of his work Material Civilization, economics and capitalism(of Civilization and Capitalism), but he is not completely satisfied with it. He works hard until 1979, when he finally publishes the final version of his three-volume work.
F. Braudel trained a galaxy of remarkable French historians: G. Duby, M. Ferro, F. Fouret, J. Le Goff, E. Leroy-Ladurie Leroy-Ladurie), J. Revel (Jacques Revel), etc. Braudel supported and promoted talents in his academic empire, but also closely monitored his potential rivals and competitors.
In 1970, due to disagreements with the Annales staff, he resigned as editor-in-chief, remaining only a nominal member of the magazine's new collective leadership. From that moment on, the scientist devotes all his energy to the “House of Human Sciences” and his latest multi-volume work Identity of France which he failed to complete .
Braudel's influence on world historiography is difficult to overestimate. His name is associated not only with changes in French historiography (which directly affected the Annales school), but also with serious changes in the paradigm of modern historical science throughout the world. F. Braudel changed the subject of historical science, introducing new spatiotemporal boundaries of the object and subject of historical research. At the same time, he retained the traditional methods of scientific history for obtaining positive (objective) knowledge about an object. The scientist proposed a new methodology for the synthesis of social sciences based on identifying the structure of social time. Traditionally, historical studies have been structured either around specific events in time, such as the history of political revolution (for example, the Great French Revolution), the history of war ( Hundred Years' War) or large historical periods (the history of the Middle Ages), or around some spatial-historical formation, for example, a state (the history of England), a religious movement (the history of Christianity) or socio-economic formations (the history of antiquity). Braudel criticizes traditional historiography, which is based on the description of historical events that are directly related to political history and measured in relatively short chronological units. For his research, he introduces the concept of time of long durations (la longue durtée). With the help of this concept, the subject of historical research becomes demographic progressions, changes in economic and social conditions, cyclical fluctuations in production, exchange and consumption, i.e. concepts widely used in social sciences such as demography, ethnology, economics, sociology, etc. With this approach, the subject of history turns out to be not individual historical individuals, but structures slowly changing over time - “systems of fairly stable relations between social reality and the masses.” Such subjects are the urban economies of Venice in the 15th–16th centuries. or Antwerp–Amsterdam 16–17 centuries, rice production in China 13–17 centuries. or the agricultural revolution in England in the 17th–18th centuries, maritime trade over long distances, or the quasi-autonomous trade of Russia in the 16th–18th centuries. This allows us to overcome a certain anthropocentrism of idealized objects of historical science, which forces us to look for a specific character as the main character on the historical stage. historical figure, thereby giving chance a decisive role in the description of history (the anecdote about Napoleon's runny nose as a fatal factor for the French during the battle of Borodino). On the other hand, teleologism in historical science is overcome, which arises from the transfer by the historian to a group of persons identified by some characteristics (for example, bearers of the Protestant ethic or advanced class consciousness) of characteristics inherent only to an individual. Making extensive use of economic statistics and retrospective geography, Braudel creates a broad historical panorama of “eventless history”, in which not local phenomena of the political life of society are recorded as events, but “anomalies” discovered by the historian natural course historical life of society. Such, for example, is the customs mystery of Narva, or the financial stability of the English pound sterling from 1561 to 1920. It is they who require their explanation in the history of the emergence of capitalism.
The identification of a new dimension of history and a specific historical subject in the form of the structures being studied allowed Braudel to create an original model of historical research. First, the geographical, demographic, agrotechnical, production and consumer conditions of material life are considered, or, as Braudel called them, the “structures of everyday life” of the subject of research. This is something that does not change for a long time, estimated in centuries, and constitutes the material conditions of human existence in a given geographical and social environment. Then the actual economic structures of society associated with the sphere of exchange (markets, fairs, exchanges and loans, trade and industry) and the social structures arising on their basis are analyzed, starting from the simplest trade hierarchies and ending, if the subject of the study requires it, with the state. Finally, the last part of the study shows how, as a result of the interaction of previously identified structures, the actual subject of research arises, be it the world of the economy of modern capitalism ( Material civilization, economy and capitalism of the 15th–18th centuries., vol. 1–3. M., 1986–1992) or modern France ( What is France. M., 1994–1997). Due to the fact that the subject of Braudel's research is the civilizations of the Mediterranean, the emergence of capitalism or the identity of France, considered as moments of large temporal durations, the results obtained by the scientist go beyond the framework of a narrative presentation of history. In terms of his influence on the development of historical science, Fernand Braudel can be placed on a par with such figures as Leopold von Ranke, Theodor Mommsen, Jacob Burckhard, Fustel de Coulanges, Lucien Febvre, Marc Bloch and Arnold Toynbee.
Despite the fact that specific scientific work in accordance with the methodology developed by Braudel, which involves large-scale, expensive research, it is still quite difficult for modern Russian science in the conditions of its insufficient funding; the works of F. Braudel are examples of modern historical research also for many Russian historians and teams of scientists.
Fedor Blucher
Braudel Fernand (1902-1985). French historian and organizer of science. Fernand Braudel was born on August 24, 1902 in Lumeville (Mace department), near Verdun. The son of a rural teacher, he spent his childhood in the village, on his grandmother's farm. In 1908 the family moved to Paris. In 1913-1920, Braudel studied at the Voltaire Lycée, then entered the Sorbonne, from which he graduated in 1923. He hoped to get a position as a high school teacher in Bar-le-Duc, a town not far from his home, but these hopes were not justified. In 1923 he went to Algeria, which was then a French colony, and became a history teacher, first in Constantine and then at the Algiers Lyceum. There he worked until 1932 and there he met his future wife, Paula. During the same period (1925-1926), Braudel underwent military service in a group of occupying French forces in Germany.
However, he aspired to a scientific career. Contrary to the recommendations of the Sorbonne professors, who advised him to devote his doctoral dissertation to the history of Germany, he began studying the past of Spain. Already in the summer of 1927, Braudel conducted his research in the archives and libraries of Salamanca (Spain), collecting historical material for his dissertation Philip II, Spain and the Mediterranean. In addition, he visits other places in the Mediterranean, in particular, in 1934 - Dubrovnik (Yugoslavia), where, according to him, he sees the 16th century with his own eyes.
In 1932 Braudel began teaching in Paris. At the same time, his friendship and collaboration with Lucien Febvre (1878-1956), professor of history at the College de France, began. Braudel's further fate is closely connected with Lucien Febvre and his journal "Annals of Economic and Social History" (Annales d'histoire économique et sociale), which Febvre and Marc Bloch organized in 1929. The general orientation of the magazine revised the topics, research methods and the very understanding of the subject historical science, Febvre called for “another history,” which included not only the history of wars and accessions to thrones, but also the study of all aspects of everyday human life in the interwar periods.
In 1935 Braudel went to Brazil, where he was offered a position as a professor at the University of Sao Paulo. In 1937 he returned to France, and the following year began work at the Practical School of Higher Studies (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes) in Paris. His friendship with Lucien Febvre grows stronger, and Braudel decides to write a book about the medieval Mediterranean under the leadership of Febvre. But the war interfered with these plans.
In 1939 Braudel joined the French army. In 1940 he was captured and spent the next five years in prison camps, first in Mainz, then, from 1943, in a maximum security concentration camp on the Baltic coast (near Lübeck). While in captivity, he wrote the work The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II (La Méditerranée et le monde méditerranéen à l"époque de Philippe II), which in 1947 was defended as a dissertation, and in 1949 it was published and opened the way for Braudel to the big world. science. They say that for five years he worked on scraps of school notebooks, on the corner of the table, without any documents or books, from memory, from the knowledge that he accumulated while working in the archives and libraries of Spain, Venice, Ragusa ( Dubrovnik). It is no less surprising that he managed to send these records from the concentration camp to France, Febvre. By that time, Febvre remained the only head of the “Annals school” - in 1944, Mark Bloch was shot for participating in the Resistance movement.
After the end of the war and his liberation, Braudel returned to France and worked at the Sorbonne. In November 1947, Febvre and Charles Moraze, with money from the Rockefeller Foundation, founded Section VI (social and economic sciences) of the Practical School of Higher Studies (VI section de l "Ecole pratique des hautes études).
In 1949 Braudel moved from the Sorbonne to the Collège de France, where he became head of the department of modern civilization.
After the death of Lucien Febvre in 1956, Braudel became president of the IV section of the Practical School of Higher Studies and remained so until 1973. He took Febvre's position at the College de France and became editor-in-chief of the Annales (from 1946 to 1994 the magazine was called Annales. (Economics. Societies. Civilizations.)" (“Annales. Economies. Sociétés. Civilisations”).
In 1958, Braudel's fundamental methodological article, History and Social Sciences: Time of Long Duration, was published.
In 1959, he conceived the creation of an open scientific center and library called the “House of Human Sciences” (“Maison des sciences de l’homme”). In 1970, with the help of the Ford Foundation, the “House of Human Sciences” finally opened, and Braudel became its chief administrator.
In 1967, Braudel published the first version of the 1st volume of the work Material Civilization, Economics and Capitalism (of Civilization and Capitalism), but he was not completely satisfied with it. He works hard until 1979, when he finally publishes the final version of his three-volume work.
F. Braudel trained a galaxy of remarkable French historians: G. Duby, M. Ferro, F. Fouret, J. Le Goff, E. Leroy-Ladurie Leroy-Ladurie), J. Revel (Jacques Revel), etc. Braudel supported and promoted talents in his academic empire, but also closely monitored his potential rivals and competitors. In 1970, due to disagreements with the Annales staff, he resigned as editor-in-chief, remaining only a nominal member of the magazine's new collective leadership. From that moment on, the scientist devoted all his energy to the “House of Human Sciences” and his last multi-volume work, The Identity of France, which he was unable to complete.
| Fernand Braudel | |
|---|---|
| Fernand Braudel | |
| Date of birth | August 24(1902-08-24 ) |
| Place of birth | Lumeville-en-Ornois en (Meuse department, France) |
| Date of death | November 27(1985-11-27 ) (83 years old) |
| Place of death | Cluses fr (Haute-Savoie, France) |
| Country | France France |
| Scientific field | story |
| Place of work | Practical School of Higher Studies |
| Alma mater |
|
| Academic title | professor |
| Awards and prizes | |
| Quotes on Wikiquote | |
| Fernand Braudel at Wikimedia Commons | |
Biography
Born into the family of a mathematics teacher in a small village Lumeville-en-Ornois en near the German border in Lorraine. Peasant childhood played a role in shaping his worldview. In 1909 he entered primary school in the Parisian suburb of Meriel, where he studied with the future actor Jean Gabin, and then at the Voltaire Lyceum in Paris.
He received his higher education at the Sorbonne at the Faculty of Humanities. “Like all left-wing students of that time,” he was attracted by the French Revolution, and as the topic of his thesis he chose the revolutionary events in the town closest to his home village, Bar-le-Duc. He spent the next decade teaching history at a college in Algiers, interrupted by military service in 1925-1926. The years in Algeria were of great importance in defining his work. In 1928 he published his first article.
In 1932 he returned to Paris to teach at the Lycée Condorcet and then at the Lycée Henri IV. During this time he met his colleague Lucien Febvre. Already in 1935, he and the anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss were invited to teach at the newly created University of São Paulo in Brazil, and Braudel spent three years there.
In 1947 he defended his dissertation. Since 1948 Braudel directed [ ] . In 1949, he became a professor at the College de France, occupying the department of modern civilization, and also headed the jury for the defense of historical dissertations. In 1956-1972, he headed the VI section (“Economic and Social Sciences”) at the Practical School of Higher Studies. After the death of L. Febvre in 1956, he also served as editor of the magazine “Annales, Economies, Sociétés, Civilisations” (in fact, until 1970). Corresponding Member of the British Academy (1962). Honorary doctorate from the universities of Brussels, Oxford, Geneva, Cambridge, London, Chicago, etc.
In 1949, his book “The Mediterranean Sea and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II” was published, which evoked mixed responses among fellow historians. This serious work demonstrates the author's attitude to the geography, social and economic history of the region as important components in historical analysis, thus downplaying the role of events and personalities. The historian was greatly influenced by Lucien Febvre, one of the immediate founders of the Annales school.
Braudel’s most famous work is considered his three-volume work “Material Civilization, Economics and Capitalism, XV-XVIII Centuries,” published in 1979, dedicated to the transition from feudalism to capitalism. This is a large-scale study of the pre-industrial world, showing in great detail how the economies of European (and other) countries functioned in a given historical period. It characterizes in particular detail the development of trade and money circulation; much attention is also paid to the influence of the geographical environment on social processes.
Braudel is a well-known proponent and promoter of interdisciplinary approaches.
Theory of history
As Yu. N. Afanasyev writes, “Braudel’s vision of history was determined primarily by the desire to understand human achievements and make them understandable to others.” Braudel conceptualized the category historical time, which he considered as internally heterogeneous, dividing “historical time” into the following levels:
- Firstly, short time changes in events, mainly political;
- secondly, average duration or cyclic time, describing the cycles of ups and downs of significant social and cultural processes: economic, migration, demographic, etc.
- thirdly, long duration(French longue durée), characterizing large structures of coexistence of people that support the integrity of large socio-cultural formations (civilizations).
Short time refers to events in people's daily lives. Vivid examples are, for example, newspaper chronicles describing fires, disasters, crimes, grain prices, etc. Although such phenomena are significant for a historian, the study of history is not limited to them. History is not just a collection of events; a wave-like (conjunctural) technique is used for analysis, which allows one to study time longue durée. The very concept of longue durée distinguishes history from other humanities, since it describes the unity, continuity, and integrity of human history, taking into account different directions of change. The dynamics of human life can be seen in full when viewed through aspects within “slow” history.
Works
- - La Méditerranée et le Monde Méditerranéen a l"époque de Philippe II(3 volumes, 1st ed.; 2nd ed.; The Mediterranean Sea and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II):
- - Ecrits sur l'Histoire, vol. 1. -
Fernand Braudel
Fernand Braudel (August 4, 1902, Lunéville, Meuse - November 28, 1985, Paris) - French historian, social thinker, one of the founders of the new paradigm of modern historical science. Graduated from the Sorbonne (1923). He took part in the 2nd World War and was captured in 1940-1945. In 1947 he defended his dissertation. In 1946 he became one of the founders of the Annaly magazine. Since 1949 he headed the department of modern civilization at the College de France. Since 1962, administrator of the House of Human Sciences. He proposed a new methodology for the synthesis of social sciences, highlighting the structures of social time. Criticizing traditional historiography, based on the description of historical events measured in short chronological units, Braudel introduces the concept of “long time” (la longue duree). It is with the help of this concept that historical research can make its subject demographic processes, changes in economic and social conditions, and cyclical fluctuations in production, exchange and consumption. With this approach, the subject of history turns out to be not individual historical individuals, but structures slowly changing over time - “systems of fairly stable relations between social reality and the masses.” Isolating a new dimension of history and a specific historical subject in the form of structures allowed Braudel to create an original model of historical research, widely used by historians in the 2nd half of the 20th century. First, the geographical, demographic, agrotechnical, production and consumer conditions of material life are considered, or, as Braudel calls them, “the structures of everyday life.” Then the actual economic structures of society associated with the sphere of exchange (markets and fairs, exchanges and loans, trade and industry) and the social structures arising on their basis are analyzed, starting with the simplest trade hierarchies and ending, if the subject of research requires it, with the state. Finally, the last part of the study shows how, as a result of the interaction of previously identified structures, the actual subject of research arises, be it the economic world of modern capitalism (“Material Civilization, Economics and Capitalism,” 1992) or modern France (“What is France?”, 1997 ).
F. N. Blucher
New philosophical encyclopedia. In four volumes. / Institute of Philosophy RAS. Scientific ed. advice: V.S. Stepin, A.A. Guseinov, G.Yu. Semigin. M., Mysl, 2010, vol. I, A - D, p. 311.
Braudel, Fernand (b. 24.VIII.1902) - French historian, head of the French Center for Historical Research, prof. Collège de France, head of the VI section "Economic and Social Sciences" at the Ecole pratique des Hautes Études, editor of the journal "Annales Economies, Sociétés, Civilisations". Braudel's most significant work, "The Mediterranean Sea and the Mediterranean World in the Time of Philip II" ("La Méditerranée et le monde méditerranéen a l"époque de Philippe II", 1949) contains extensive material on the geography, economics and history of South-Western Europe in the 2nd century. In the first half of the 16th century, the data on trade and money circulation are especially interesting. In methodological issues, Braudel largely follows L. Febvre. He proceeds from the need to understand the laws of social development. great value economic phenomena. Advocating for the widespread use of material from a number of related sciences (geography, demography, psychology, etc.) in historical research, Braudel sometimes overestimates their role in the process of historical knowledge. In particular, Braudel's exaggeration of the influence of the geographical environment leads him to the position of so-called “geohistory”. Braudel also overestimates the importance of trade and the movement of supply and demand in the development of society.
Yu. L. Immortal. Moscow.
Soviet historical encyclopedia. In 16 volumes. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. 1973-1982. Volume 2. BAAL - WASHINGTON. 1962.
Works: Navires et marchandises a l "entrée du port de Livourne (1547-1611), R., 1951 (jointly with R. Romano); Les responsabilités de l "histoire, "Cahiers internationaux de sociologie", 1951, v. 10, r. 3-18; Histoire et sciences sociales. La longue durée, "Annales. E.S.S.", 1958, No. 4, p. 725-753.
Fernand Braudel (1902-1985) - French medievalist historian, representative of the Annales school, who headed the editorial board of the Annals: Economics, Society, Civilizations magazine in 1956. Graduated from the Voltaire Lyceum and the Sorbonne. From the early 1920s to the mid-1930s, B. was a teacher at one of the lyceums in Algeria (the first scientific article, “Spaniards in North Africa,” was published in 1928). Since 1949 - head of the department of modern civilization at the College de France, chairman of the jury for the defense of dissertations in history. Chief administrator of the House of Human Sciences created on his initiative (since 1962). Honorary doctorate from the universities of Brussels, Oxford, Madrid, Geneva, Warsaw, Cambridge, London, Chicago. Main works: "Material civilization, economics and capitalism, XV-XVIII centuries." (in 3 volumes, 1979; vol. 1 was published in 1967), “The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II” (1949), “History and Social Sciences. Long Time Continuity” (1958), “Notes on History "(collection of articles, 1969), etc.
The main characteristics of the understanding of history according to B. are a certain “confrontation” between geography and history itself (the main “character” of historical research in B., as a rule, is the geographical area), as well as a very unusual dialectics space - time, which finds its expression in the ideas of the echelon of historical reality and the cyclical nature of the evolution of society. B. believed it was legitimate to consider historical reality in different refractions, placing fleeting event-political phenomena on its upper level, long-term socio-economic trends on the middle, and, finally, timeless natural and geographical constants on the lower.
The theory of the multiplicity of times in history (B.'s predecessor was G. Gurvich) thus postulated the presence of three fundamental types of duration inherent in different levels of historical reality: a) “time of extremely long extent,” flowing in the natural (the time of natural rhythms) and macroeconomic (time of economic structures) levels and “as if motionless”; 6) the time of large “cycles” and economic “conjunctures” (lasting in the social sphere); c) short and “nervous” time of “short breathing” - the time of events. Human freedom turns out, according to B., to be nothing more than “foam” on the surface of an “ocean” of motionless “structures.” Analyzing the course of “global history” in the tradition of the Annals, B. identifies within its boundaries economic, social, political and cultural “systems,” which further include a number of “subsystems.” According to B., “according to this scheme, global history (or, better said, history tending towards globality, striving for totality, but never being able to become such) is the study of at least these four systems in themselves, then in their relationships, their interdependence, their scaliness." Reconstruction of global history is B.'s understanding of the dynamics of interconnected levels of historical reality, which is not carried out in the form of their unidirectional, synchronized and uniformly accelerated evolution, but represents uneven and time-displaced movements, since each historical reality is characterized by its own specific time rhythm. (In relation to the study “The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II,” B. noted: “the only problem I had to solve was to show how different times move at different speeds.”)
Having legitimized the concept of “long time duration” (longue duree) in the scientific circulation of historical science, B. emphasized that the main area of his research interests is “the almost motionless history of people in their close relationship with the land on which they walk and which feeds them; history a continuously repeating dialogue between man and nature... as persistent as if it were beyond the reach of the damage and blows inflicted by time." Carrying out in the now classic study "Material civilization, economics and capitalism, XV-XVIII centuries." detailed analysis three layers of the economic life of mankind (material everyday life, market economy and capitalism) in their evolution, B. tried to answer the question formulated in the first edition of the first volume of the book in 1967: “...how does that system, that complex system existence, which is associated with the concept of the Old Order... could become unusable, burst; how did it become possible to go beyond its limits... How was the ceiling broken through, how could the ceiling be broken through? And why only in favor of a few who find themselves among the privileged on the entire planet?” The architectonics of B.’s monumental work turns out to be consonant with his interpretation of the nature and essence of social processes that took place in a given historical period.
The first volume was devoted to the consideration of the structures of people's daily lives, which, according to B., acted as “rules that for too long kept the world in a rather difficult to explain stability.” The content of the second volume demonstrated the processes of coexistence and gradual interpenetration of the structures of the market economy, on the one hand, opposed, according to B., to the “array of infraeconomics,” i.e. material everyday life of people (food, clothing, housing, equipment, money), on the other. B. saw signs of capitalism during this period in speculative operations, long-distance trade, and bank loan procedures. The third volume outlined possible approaches to the problem of organizing the history of the world in time and space: the mechanisms of alternation (over five or six centuries) of the dominance of certain economically autonomous regions of the planet (Venice, Genoa, England, etc.) were explicated. B.'s historical research not only (to a certain extent, contrary to the “historical-psychological spirit” of the Annals) demonstrated the possibility of creating an economically centered, but at the same time multifactorial history of society, but also was an example of a combination of classical traditions of systemic philosophy of history and innovative intellectual methods and techniques of the second half of the 20th century. (See also "Annals" school.)
A.A. Gritsanov
The latest philosophical dictionary. Comp. Gritsanov A.A. Minsk, 1998.
Read further:
Philosophers, lovers of wisdom (biographical reference book of CHRONOS).
Historical figures of France (biographical index).
Historians (biographical reference book).
Essays:
La Mediterranee et le monde mediterraneen a l "epoque de Philippe II. P., 1949;
What is France? M., 1997;
Material civilization, economics and capitalism, XV-XVIII centuries. M., 1992.
The combination of two fundamental concepts - culture and civilization - in the history of cultural studies caused a lot of controversy and discussion, and led to the emergence of opposing points of view. The desire to join the global flow, to acquire the features of a universal civilization is widely discussed by our contemporaries. Along with this, there are fears of the loss of nationally distinctive features of culture, uniqueness, which can dissolve and melt in the process of “technization” and “Westernization.” Fierce denunciations by O. Spengler, A. Schweitzer, J. Huizinga of “machine civilization” with its catastrophic urbanization, ecological crisis, insane militarization, primitiveness of spiritual interests, wastefulness and disregard for the individual are supported by many theorists.
There is a desire to return “back to nature”, to limit consumption and comfort, to live a “simple”, unpretentious life.
In the social sciences, the concept of civilization was supplanted by the theory of socio-economic formations that determine the ascent along the path of progress, although historical material “resisted” schemes and conventional constructions. Despite the economic determinism so widespread in methodology, knowledge about the development of the material life of society turned out to be extremely poor and limited.
This is why F. Braudel’s work “Material Civilization” is so interesting. Economy and capitalism of the XV-XVIII centuries" 1, in which, on a vast historical material The problems of the relationship between culture and civilization are considered.
F. Braudel dedicates his address to the reader in connection with the translation of the trilogy into Russian Russian historians A. A. Guber,
1 Braudel F. Material civilization. Economy and capitalism of the XV-XVIII centuries: In 3 vols. M., 1988-1993.
B. N. Porshnev, E. A. Zhelubovskaya, M. M. Strang, A. 3. Manfred, whose works were known to him, and notes the importance of historical studies of culture and civilization. He insists on interdisciplinary interaction between scientists from different specialties, believing that various human sciences “shatter” history.
Social sciences cannot produce fruitful results if they start only from the present, which is not sufficient for their construction. This point sounds especially important for cultural studies.
About the biography of the scientist
Let's look at some of the main events life path this outstanding historian of our time.
Fernand Braudel (1902-1985) was born in 1902 in a small town in Lorraine, in eastern France. He recalled that in those years he also found the village blacksmith and cartmaker at work, knew how hemp was soaked in the meadow lowlands, and saw wandering lumberjacks. A stone path as old as the world lay in front of his house. These are archaic for the 20th century. the forms of everyday material life came to mind more than once when he studied the history of European civilization. Even in modern economic systems, as Braudel later wrote, there are residual forms of the material culture of the past. They disappear before our eyes, but slowly, and it never happens the same way.
The material life of society is multi-layered, and changes paint a picture of a long time span, penetrating the silent thickness of centuries. The “primary” elements of civilization are visible in every culture, forming the basis of the daily life of the people. They evolve little by little, transforming into new forms, but still accompany man, forming his powerful “root” system, giving stability to existence.
It is these problems of numerous interweavings in the economy that will become the object of philosophical and cultural reflections for Braudel.
Fernand Braudel graduated from the Voltaire Lyceum in Paris and continued his education at the famous Sorbonne. Having become a professional historian, he taught at lyceums for almost 10 years (with the exception of 1925-1926, when he served in the army), working in Algeria, studying in archives European countries. Already in those years, he developed a deep love for the Mediterranean, which later became the topic of his dissertation.
In 1937, Braudel was appointed to the École Practical des Hautes Etudes in Paris. During these years, a group of historians became famous, united around the French magazine “Annals: Economics. - Society. - Civilizations", which was founded in 1929 by Marc Bloch (1886-1944) and Lucien Febvre (1878-1956). Their views turned out to be very close to Braudel, and he had friendly relations with Febvre since 1932.
The Annales school (this name later stuck) was distinguished by a new methodology for studying world history. Objecting to “event” history as the only possible one, theorists proposed restoring the entire volume of historical life, including changes in the value system, differences in the rhythms of change in material life. The focus was on everyday life, which has inertia, duration and stability. From these positions, Braudel began writing a book about the Mediterranean.
His studies were interrupted by the Second World War. Braudel found himself at the front. During the defeat of the French army, he was captured and from 1940 to 1945 he was in a prisoner of war camp: first in Mainz, and from 1U42 - in a special regime camp in Lübeck. It’s hard to imagine, but it was during these years that Braudel wrote a huge and original work in 1160 pages - “The Mediterranean Sea and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II”, practically relying only on his phenomenal memory, without having books or any historical materials at hand.
He handed over the school notebooks in which this study was written from the camp to his friend the historian Fevre, who carefully preserved them. After the end of World War II, Braudel was able to defend his dissertation on this manuscript, and in 1949, publish a book. In the same year, he became head of the department of modern civilization at the College de France, and from 1956 to 1970 he headed the Annales magazine, continuing the line of M. Blok and L. Febvre in the study of cultural history.
In 1952, he accepted Febvre's offer to write a book for the Destiny of the World series about the economic history of pre-industrial Europe between the 15th and 18th centuries. This research greatly fascinated Braudel, and as a result of many years of work, three fundamental volumes, “Material Civilization. Economy and capitalism of the XV-XVIII centuries", which became a major event in world historical science.
The book outlines the original concept of the evolution of the material culture of society, the problems of preserving and transforming archaic forms, the emergence and spread of new formations, and traces the connections and interdependencies of the material and spiritual life of society.
The book contains more than 500 first-class illustrations, maps, graphs, diagrams? engravings, photographs, and the bibliography includes 5,500 on-. naming. All this does scientific work extremely interesting and fascinating; looking at paintings executed by famous masters with the highest taste and authenticity is a pleasure.
The abundance of factual material in the books gave many contemporaries the basis to call Braudel “a miracle of historical erudition.” The theoretical concept is interesting, easy to understand, and presented in a good literary style. This contributed to the fact that soon all three volumes became widely known, were published in many countries, and in 1988-1992. were also published in Russia. Each volume is a unique study of the history of the material civilization of Europe: Volume I - “Structures of Everyday Life: The Possible and the Impossible”; Volume II - “Games of Exchange”; Volume III - “Time of the World”. We have yet to return to this amazing trilogy.
I would like to draw attention to the portrait of Braudel: the photograph captures the image of an unusually hardworking, enthusiastic historian, with a penetrating, friendly gaze and the appearance of an intellectual, innovator and organizer of scientific research.
In 1962, Braudel created the House of Human Sciences in Paris and directed it until his death. He was elected a member of the French Academy, an honorary doctorate from the universities of Brussels, Oxford, Madrid, Geneva, Warsaw, Cambridge, London, Chicago, and a Research Center in the USA was named after him.
Fernand Braudel died in 1985 at the age of 83, having lived an incredibly eventful life, gaining recognition and authority in world historical science.
Structures of everyday life
Let’s focus on the main framework of the historical concept and present in more detail some of the plots of Volume I - “Structures of Everyday Life: The Possible and the Impossible.” Every word in this name is important, because it is endowed with a deep meaning. The concept of “everyday” is key. It expresses the main methodological orientation of the Annales school. History happens not from case to case, not from event to event, not from one form of government to another, but daily. Life consists of a huge number of “fleeting moments” that people often do not notice, they are so familiar and perceived as “naturally occurring” or “for granted.”
It is this meaning that Braudel puts into that “basic” activity that is found everywhere and the scale of which is almost fantastic.
This vast area at ground level I call, for lack of a better term, material life, or material civilization^.
Material life, as Braudel explains, is people and things, things and people. Food and drink, housing and building materials, furniture and stoves, costumes and fashion, transport and energy sources, luxury goods and money, tools and technical inventions, diseases and methods of treatment, plans of villages and cities - everything that serves a person, that is connected with him in everyday life.
T This “opaque” zone is not only vast, but also inert, changes in it occur extremely slowly.
Above the lower “floor” rises a more mobile zone, the so-called market economy, the mechanisms of production and exchange associated with the activities of people in agriculture, with workshops, shops, stock exchange, banks, fairs and markets. The structure is completed by the third “floor,” where transnational forces operate that can distort the course of the economy and undermine the established order.
They generate anomalies and "turbulences" and create an upper limit on the "possible and impossible."
Thus, a pattern emerges where all three floors are in close contact with each other, like tiles on a roof. This is
1 Braudel F. Material civilization... T. I. Structures of everyday life: possible and impossible. P. 7.
allows Braudel to conclude that “there is no one, A some economics". And this is typical not only for the distant historical past, but also for modern society.
All floors of the “building” have their lower and upper limits, which form the boundaries of the “possible and impossible.” The lower zone is especially large, covering a significant number of the population. This is a continuation of the “ancient economy”, because the old skills, abilities and orders prevail in it: grain is sown in the same way as always, the rice field is leveled in the same way as always.
Each “floor” lives not only according to its own laws, but also in accordance with its own rhythms. There are ebbs and flows, long or short-term cycles, waves of rise and fall roll over each other, creating unique configurations of material life in space And time. Analysis of these processes allows us to observe how equilibrium was achieved in history, why it began to collapse, and how crises arose.
“Daily bread” plays an important role in everyday life. This is exactly what one of the chapters of Volume I is called. Braudel quotes the famous proverb: “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are,” for food testifies And about a person’s culture, his social rank, material capabilities, national habits, level of civilization, age, taste preferences.
Wheat, rice, maize, soybeans, and corn were “plants of civilization”; they were the signs of sedentary life. It was necessary to have farming skills, to know the usefulness of grains, and how to eat them.
Braudel explores in detail the distribution routes of these cereals, the types of “breads” common in different countries, yields and prices, cooking And the products of bakers, the emergence of mills and bakeries, scientific farming and diet.
"History of Humanity" united in their renewal over thousands of years and in their marking time, synchrony and diachrony are inextricably linked with each other,” concludes Braudel 1.
Let us recall that Braudel conducts research into the phenomena of material culture within the framework of “possible and impossible”, the boundaries of “bottom and top”, “poverty” And luxury."
The established boundaries are very fluid: what was luxury yesterday becomes commonplace and widespread today:
Braudel F. Material civilization... Vol. I. P. 47.
“When some food, which has long been rare and coveted, finally becomes available to the masses, there follows a sharp jump in its consumption, as if an explosion of a long-suppressed appetite. But, having become “popularized,” this type of food quickly loses its attractiveness, and a certain saturation is expected.
The rich are condemned to prepare the lives of the poor in the future - this is the tendency of the spread of culture and civilization. It is difficult to define luxury once and for all, which is changeable in nature, elusive, multifaceted and contradictory,” concludes F. Braudel 1 .
He gives many examples from cultural history showing how an excess or rare product becomes common and everyday. For example, sugar was a luxury until the 14th century; up to the XVI-XVII centuries. very rarely used a fork while eating; Luxury items included a handkerchief, small and deep plates.
Luxury is a reflection of differences in social levels, but it constantly exists as an external limit to desire, thereby stimulating production.
Braudel provides a huge amount of information about the peculiarities of cooking in China and India, Arab countries and Europe, about the spread of various “stimulating” drinks - wine and beer, coffee and tea, and the customs of their consumption.
As Braudel notes, the home is characterized by traditional permanence. The house is stable in history, has remained almost unchanged for centuries and invariably testifies to the slow pace of development of civilizations and cultures that stubbornly strive to preserve, retain, and repeat those techniques, materials, and technologies that have stood the test of time.
Cut stone, brick, wood and clay, as well as felt, cloth, reed or straw - these are the main building materials. The houses of poor and rich, rural and urban residents differed; the dwelling of the nomads was different from that of the settled population; in the North they built differently than in the East or South.
Traditional civilizations were distinguished by the constancy of the interior of their houses. For a long time, people did not know chairs; they were replaced by benches, barrels or other seats. There was almost no heating in the houses; the kitchen fireplace and brazier served as the only sources of heat. In the countries of the East, the dwelling inside was filled with numerous
Right there. P. 200.
with pillows, mattresses, carpets, which were spread out in the evening and rolled up in the morning.
In China, houses were distinguished by exquisite furniture made from precious woods; varnish and inlay complemented the decoration. In Africa, clay huts were built, made of poles and reeds, round “like dovecotes,” occasionally covered with lime, without furniture, except for clay pots and baskets, without windows, carefully fumigated every evening with smoke from mosquitoes.
The interior and decoration of a European house also have a long history. The floor on the ground floor was made of compacted earth, patterned slabs began to be used from the 16th century, and wooden parquet became common only in the 18th century, and then only in rich houses. The walls were covered with wallpaper fabrics; by the end of the 17th century. paper wallpapers spread, which also symbolized luxury. Only in the 16th century. Transparent glass appeared, and before that, window openings were covered with parchment, cloth, oiled paper, and plaster plates. That's why window frames were with frequent wooden bindings.
For centuries, carpenters built houses and furniture: heavy cabinets, huge tables, benches and chairs - everything was stable and heavy. Each house had a wooden chest, fastened with iron strips, spacious and monumental.
The history of furniture makes it possible to reproduce the atmosphere of life, its way of life, the way people communicate; imagine how they ate, slept, played, and worked in this separate world.
What was the owner of this House like, how did he dress, did he follow fashion as an opportunity for renewal? Braudel devotes the chapter “Costumes and Fashion” to these problems. The history of costume is considered in a broad social and cultural context: types of fabrics, their production and distribution, social hierarchy that strictly regulates the appearance of classes, national characteristics clothing, its seasonal nature, pomp and demonstrative wealth of toilets, festive and everyday outfits.
The costume often served as a kind of social mask - a priest, an artisan, a courtier, a peasant. Thanks to this, he became “recognizable” to others. The traditional style of clothing was preserved everywhere; festive attire was passed from parents to children, taken out of chests at a certain time.
The Japanese kimono, Indian sari, and Spanish poncho have undergone almost no changes. Fashion means not only abundance, excess, madness, but also the rhythm of change. Until the beginning of the 12th century. the costume in Europe remained almost unchanged: chitons to the toes for women, to the knees for men. But in general - centuries and centuries of immobility.
Braudel dates the first appearance of fashion to the 14th century, when the rule of change in clothing began to operate, although it operated very unevenly and did not cover all layers, encountering initial resistance. National fashion centers emerge, and gradually its samples are adopted in other countries.
So, in the 16th century. Among the upper classes, a black cloth suit, introduced by the Spaniards, became fashionable. This can be seen in many paintings. It replaced the magnificent costume of the Italian Renaissance. But in the 17th century. The French suit with bright silks and loose fit triumphed. Fashion spread from Paris to all parts of Europe. Unusual dress was often ridiculed. The excessive height of women's hairstyles, manicures, spots on the face, and the diversity of men's suits were symbols of fashion trends. Fashion meant the search for a new language, it was a way to record differences from previous generations. The secrets of fabric production were jealously guarded from competitors. It took centuries for silk to travel from China to Europe; The journey of cotton was no less lengthy; flax and hemp only gradually penetrated into other countries.
Fashion reigned not only in clothing, it covered the style of behavior, manner of writing and speaking, receiving guests and daily routine, caring for the body, face, and hair. Appearance made it possible to judge the era, social status, professional occupations, age and gender, material wealth, tastes and nationality.
** These are the realities of material life. Food, drinks, housing, clothing, fashion - this is the reality in which a person lives every day. It constitutes the language of culture, the combination of “things and words,” symbols and meanings that a person owns, becoming their “captive.”
Within individual societies, these things and languages constitute a whole. Civilizations are strange assemblages of material values, symbols, illusions, fads and intellectual constructs.
Technical inventions
An equally vast layer of technical inventions, energy sources, means of transportation, and forms of monetary exchange closely interact with the lower “floor” of everyday life. Braudel devotes subsequent chapters to this.
Mechanical means and the instruments of the material life of society existed for a long time. Inventions appeared, but very slowly conquered the world and acquired universal significance. Arabic numerals, gunpowder, compass, paper, silk, and printing were not approved at a gallop; it took considerable time for them to be accepted. Every invention had to wait years or even centuries to enter or be introduced into real life.
> "F. Braudel analyzes the historical process of the movement of three great innovations, sometimes called technical revolutions. These include: 1) invention of gunpowder; 2) typography; 3) swimming in the open ocean.
It is difficult to compare these technical achievements with each other - the first contributed to the improvement of artillery and was a weapon of war; the second led to the spread of enlightenment and education; third, it changed the sea routes of the world and made cultural contacts real. Let us dwell in more detail on the significance of printing.
Paper came to Europe from China through the Muslim countries of the East. The first paper mills began operating in Spain in the 12th century. But European paper production really began to develop in Italy at the beginning of the 14th century. Old linen was used as raw material, and the profession of rag picker became very popular. China knew printing from the 9th century, Japan - from the 11th century. It was carried out from wooden boards, each of which corresponded to one page. This was an extremely long process.
Then ceramic type was invented, which was attached to a metal mold with wax. Then the letters were cast from tin, but they quickly wore out. At the beginning of the 14th century. movable wooden type was used. Only from the middle of the 15th century. typesetting and movable type appeared, invented by Gutenberg, a master from the city of Mainz in Germany. This font remained almost unchanged until the 18th century. The invention quickly spread - by 1500, 236 European cities had their own printing houses, in the 16th century. About 140-200 thousand books were published.
The ancient handwritten book was gradually replaced by the printed book. With the distribution of books, the possibilities of scientific contacts have significantly expanded and the level of education has increased. Thus, technical inventions had a significant impact on spiritual life.
Braudel analyzes in detail the technical innovations that have provided long voyages and great geographical discoveries, shipbuilding successes and trade expeditions.
However, land transport, as Braudel notes, seemed to be “stricken by paralysis.” Everything about it remained the same: poor road construction, constant routes, low speeds, archaic vehicles. The poet Paul Valéry said that “Napoleon walked as slowly as Julius Caesar.”
In Europe, carriages appeared at the end of the 16th century, postal stagecoaches only in the 17th century, on the main roads only a narrow strip was paved and two carriages could hardly pass each other.
The technical development of transport slowly accelerated. Ultimately, at one point or another, everything begins to depend on technological advances.
Money and financial settlements
Braudel includes the monetary system in the material culture of society, calling it “ancient technical means", an object of desire and interest of people. Monetary circulation appears as an instrument, structure and deep regularity of any slightly advanced system of exchanges. Money is layered on all economic and social relations.
This is a “wonderful indicator” that allows one to judge all the activities of people, down to the most modest phenomena of their lives. Species are introduced into everyday life in thousands of ways: rents and loans, duties and taxes, market prices and wages - the networks are spread everywhere.
Money is the “blood of the social organism”; it helps the circulation of goods, accumulates capital, and testifies to poverty and wealth. Monetary systems are diverse and seem mysterious. These are unique “languages” of culture and civilization, calling for knowledge and dialogue. Money is the standard in the implementation of the exchange of goods.
Already in ancient times, “primitive” money existed in different countries. It could be salt, cotton fabric, copper brass
lety, beads, gold sand by weight, corals and precious stones, shells, animals, birds, dried fish - you can’t count it all. Such archaic forms of exchange persist for a long time under the thin “skin” of developed monetary systems and, during crises or changes in the economy, are revived again in the form of “barter transactions” and natural exchange.
Metal money, gold, silver, and copper were built on top of these primitive forms. Each of these types had its own coverage area - for large, medium and small transactions and settlements. Coins accelerated monetary circulation, accumulated in the form of valuables, and flowed into different countries, rose in price and fell, changing their owners.
Then payment orders, obligations, receipts, loans, and bills began to participate in the exchange.
For centuries monetary system gradually became more complex: the more economically developed a country became, the more diverse its monetary and credit instruments were, stimulating production and consumption. Money is not only a means of economic exchange, it has socio-cultural value, creating images of stinginess and wastefulness, wealth and poverty, defining the limits of what is possible and what is impossible.
The city as the center of civilization
In the final chapter of Volume I, Braudel examines the city as the center and embodiment of civilization with all its positive and negative features and consequences. Cities are like electrical transformers: they increase voltage, speed up exchanges, they constantly change people's lives.
Braudel analyzes a number of ways to classify cities according to various criteria: the political approach distinguishes capitals, fortresses, administrative centers; economic - ports, caravan trade centers, trading cities, industrial cities, financial centers. The social approach presents a list of cities - rentiers, church, princely residences, craft centers. This classification can be continued according to cultural, religious, scientific and other criteria.
There are open cities, connected to the immediate rural environment, or closed ones, closed within their borders. Depending on the situation, the pace of development of cities, the prevailing types of occupations and even their fate changed.
Open system there was an ancient polis, Greek or Roman. From the outskirts, people gathered in the square to resolve common affairs, and took refuge in it in case of danger.
The medieval city was a closed and self-sufficient unit. Walking beyond its fortress walls is like crossing a state border. Among the citizens there were two categories; The first included “partials”, who needed to live at least 15 years in the city to become a city resident. The second category were “full-fledged”, having at least 25 years of permanent residence. They were privileged, a minority, “a small town within a town.”
In 16th-century Marseille, to obtain citizenship, one had to have “ten years permanent residence, own real estate, marry a city girl.” In these cities, dynasties of craft and merchant nobility - cloth makers, grocers, furriers, hosiery makers - had great power.
Cities under the tutelage of the central government are royal residences and centers of the Catholic Church. They owned the money, the distribution of privileges and honors.
Capitals are a special type of city: they grew rapidly economically, became populous, created a powerful national market, attracted craftsmen and artists for decoration, and were famous for the contrasts of wealth and poverty.
Describing the life and everyday life of many large cities of the world, Braudel devotes a special section to St. Petersburg in 1790, citing various information from the guidebook of I. G. Georgi, who lived in the era of Catherine II.
St. Petersburg was founded by Peter I in 1703. But the chosen location was extremely inconvenient for development. It took an unbending will for a city to arise on marshy lands and numerous islands. Alarming water levels and floods created a constant threat. Cannon shots, white flags during the day, lit lanterns, and continuous ringing of bells complemented the city's appearance. The city had to rise above mortal danger. Therefore, stone foundations, embankments reinforced with granite, specially dug canals, and paved streets were necessary.
It was a colossal and very expensive job. St. Petersburg was a lively construction site. Along the Neva were barges loaded with lime, stone, granite, alloy
in the forest. The stock exchange and customs office, Nevsky Plyos turned into a busy port by the sea. The Neva was the main highway of the city. She gave drinking water, which was flawless; In winter it turned into a sleigh path and a place for folk festivals. There was even a special profession of “ice sawers” to supply cellars located on the first floors of houses.
In 1789, almost 218 thousand people lived in St. Petersburg, with twice as many men as women. It was a city of court aristocracy, army youth, and service people. Orthodox churches were adjacent to Protestant and Catholic churches, houses of prayer for schismatics. You cannot find another city in the world where every resident speaks so many languages. Even among the lowest-ranking servants there were not those who did not speak not only Russian, but also German and Finnish, and among those who had received some kind of education, there were often those who spoke eight or nine languages . Sometimes one of these. a rather amusing mixture of languages was created - such was the capital of St. Petersburg in the 18th century.
Big cities are a kind of test showing the level of development of culture and civilization. They create a modern state, but they themselves are the result of the economic and social development of society. In them, the world of the old order gradually or accelerated changed, and a new type of city dweller emerged, with a special character and lifestyle. Braudel notes that a St. Petersburg resident has the tastes of a metropolitan resident, formed in all respects in the image and likeness of the tastes of the court. The latter set the tone with his requests, festivities, which were to the same extent universal celebrations, with magnificent illumination on the Admiralty building, on official buildings, on rich houses.
Not only a national character is characteristic of a person, but the city also introduces special features into his mentality, giving originality to the manner of communication, the way of perceiving the world, the style of speech, thereby increasing the real diversity and uniqueness of the individual.
Concluding the review of the subjects that were the subject of Braudel’s analysis, it is necessary to emphasize that the concept of material culture and civilization is modern, because the problems of the 20th century are constantly felt in it: the combination of inertia and acceleration, the duration of change, the combination of archaic forms and innovative achievements. The choice of alternative development paths increases human responsibility for the fate of culture and civilization.
The variety of forms of material culture makes it possible to build a model (or even a “grammar”) of the economic life of society.
Braudel repeatedly returns to the image of the House. If the first floor is still a solid, traditional foundation, then two floors rise above it. The upper “floors” rest on the lower ones, forming the thickest layer within one social reality. It must be borne in mind that contact between “floors” materializes in a thousand inconspicuous points: markets, shops, fairs, warehouses, stores, wholesale and retail trade- their contact, rivalry and competition are revealed everywhere. On the top “floor” - stock exchange operations, bank transactions - the “shadow zone” of powerful capital begins.
