Capitalism and material life 1400–1800

A great deal has been written lately in academic journals and periodicals about the “Annales school” of historians, and even more about its recognized leader, Fernand Braudel. Braudel's fame derives not so much from his tenure as editor of Annales: economies, societás, civilisations, as from his most significant book, published in two volumes in 1949, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II (English edition published by Harper and Row: New York, 1972 and 1974). The book under review here was published nearly twenty years later, in 1967, under the title Civilisation Materielle et Capitalisme as the first of a projected two volume work, the second volume of which has not as yet appeared.