This is the first of three fascinating volumes in which Braudel, the renowned historian and celebrated author of The Mediterranean and the Mediterr...
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Jan 26, 2010
AC
rated it: 
(Not everyone will find this book easy to read. The author makes no concessions whatsoever to the reader. The book is crammed with place names and technical vocabulary from weaving, joining, planing, sailing, ploughing, leaching, waxing, glazing, coining, minting, metallurgy, etc. etc... none of which are ever located or explained. Readers of Whitman or Catullus, poets who revel in proper nouns, will not be troubled by this cornucopia of names. For me, the book was fabulous, rich, insightful
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Jul 24, 2011
John E.
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"The past is like a foreign country: they do things differently there." One need only have seen a painting of England's Elizabeth I to have realized as much—who nowadays wears a ruff? Though Fernand Braudel had in mind a different purpose in writing The Structures of Everyday Life, it could be taken as another stack of evidence for L. P. Hartley's pithy observation. And it's a bounty.
This book is one part of a three-volume survey of pre-industrial economic life—of the entir More...
This book is one part of a three-volume survey of pre-industrial economic life—of the entir More...
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Nov 13, 2009
Kater
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Those who think about the apocalypse, and wonder if it will happen to us, should read this book and be reminded that great tragedies are the norm, rather than the exception for most of human history.
I'm going to start a review of this book even though I'm not done with it, because I think I may not finish it. It's a little on the pedantic side, with the author using academese and endeavoring to prove the merits of his methodology even at the cost of readability. It has illustrations More...
I'm going to start a review of this book even though I'm not done with it, because I think I may not finish it. It's a little on the pedantic side, with the author using academese and endeavoring to prove the merits of his methodology even at the cost of readability. It has illustrations More...
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Feb 11, 2010
nicebutnubbly
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I don't know if I'll ever finish this - I use it mainly to read myself to sleep, and my edition is so shittily bound that it is falling apart. But it's great stuff - fascinating delving into everything from cereal production to patent applications, with a meandering narrative that somehow brings out the wider implications of all the minutiae in interesting ways. It purports to be global, but like most things written by Western authors that purport to be global, it has a heavy European focus, tho
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Jan 26, 2012
Anders
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Braudel is a French historian famous for his longue duree conception of large-scale change, which he laid out in his Civilisation matérielle, économie et capitalisme, XVe-XVIIIe siècle, tome 1 : Les structures du quotidien, written in a POW camp in WWII (ha, what did YOU do when you were in a POW Camp in WWII? Olivier Messaien, put your hand down.) In this three volume set he lays out his argument for a conception of history as taking place on three main spheres: material life, which has develop
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Aug 22, 2007
Cat
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Epic in both vision and execution, Braudel's "Stuctures of Civiliisation" turns your accustomed way of thinking about history up side down. In writing his history of the world from the 14th to 18th centuries, Braudel eschews the personalities and events that fill the pages of most history. Instead, he focuses on the day-to-day lifes of normal (non-elite) in an attempt to compare and contrast the various civilisations, sub-civilisations and cultures of the world.
Although th More...
Although th More...
Aug 18, 2007
Sean
rated it: 
The first volume of Braudel’s massive work on the construction of capitalism in the 15th to 18th century sets the stage for all that is to come. It is an exhaustive survey of the social and economics conditions in Europe and, to a lesser extent, the rest of the world at the beginning of the 15th century.
The amount of primary research that went into this is mind boggling. Everything you ever wanted to know about how much livestock the average farmer in Batvia had to what were the tren More...
The amount of primary research that went into this is mind boggling. Everything you ever wanted to know about how much livestock the average farmer in Batvia had to what were the tren More...
Feb 18, 2010
DoctorM
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Okay, then. Let's be clear: This is how it's done. This is how the structures and flows and mapping of another world, another time are analysed. This is how it's done. The first volume of Braudel's 3-volume "Structures of Everyday Life: Civilisation and Capitalism, 15th-18th-C." is magisterial in the clear sense of the word: the work of a master.
This isn't narrative history. I'll warn you about that. This is an analysis of the bones of history, of the economics and commerc More...
This isn't narrative history. I'll warn you about that. This is an analysis of the bones of history, of the economics and commerc More...
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Jun 23, 2011
It's hard to imagine a modern historical landscape without Braudel's influence. I really, really like the idea of a "bottom up" history that takes into account all the raw material that makes up everyday life.
OK, so he's a Eurocentrist and, maybe worse, a Francocentrist. Oh well. Take the bad with the good. I'd probably like him a bit more if he focused on specific material histories rather than trying to write a History of Everything Everywhere, but if I think of this as More...
OK, so he's a Eurocentrist and, maybe worse, a Francocentrist. Oh well. Take the bad with the good. I'd probably like him a bit more if he focused on specific material histories rather than trying to write a History of Everything Everywhere, but if I think of this as More...
Feb 01, 2010
Dave
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This goes for this whole series - Braudel is a genius, and a patient one. I can't imagine anyone poring over so many seemingly mundane details and mining gold from it as he does.
And yet much of it is lost to me. I simply can't read him for more than 15 minutes at a stretch. If anyone has tips on how to read him with greater profit, I'm all ears.
And yet much of it is lost to me. I simply can't read him for more than 15 minutes at a stretch. If anyone has tips on how to read him with greater profit, I'm all ears.
Sep 06, 2011
Zachary
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This three-volume set should be required reading for anyone with a serious interest in the pre-industrial past. The work abounds with useful information on the past conditions of everyday life on a wide variety of subjects. I was interested while reading to gauge Braudel's economic theories--he more or less equates capitalism with big business and admits that market trade at least at the smaller level of everyday life was largely beneficial to the people. It makes an interesting read in terms
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Oct 13, 2011
Elisa
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I read the chapter about the advent of artillery, printing and modern navigation. I admit I was surprised by the quality of Braudel's writing. He manages to condense a lot of information in a style similar but more eloquent than Chaunu's. Definitely, this book is worh reading in its entirety! :)
Feb 19, 2010
Maddy
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An amazingly readable, informative, and enjoyable book. The sources sparkle, the scope does not overwhelm. I recommend this read wholeheartedly.
Jun 16, 2009
This is one of the most thorough accounts of european history i have read. It seams like a college text book, but the read is rather enjoying
Oct 27, 2011
The chapter on daily bread is compelling and worth the cover price of the book. An amazing recreation of the early modern period.
Sep 30, 2009
The Structures of Everyday Life: Civilization & Capitalism 15th-18th Century Volume 1 by Fernand Braudel (1979)
Jul 12, 2009
Julie H.
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The first volume in a three-part series by renown historian and social historian Fernand BRaudel.
Jul 16, 2008
Richard
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This book, and the entire three volume series, offers a different way to look at history. Braudel cuts across the traditional time-line view of history to give us glimpses of the history of normal, everyday things, such as food, clothes, furniture, farming technology...
He paints pictures of human life often ignored in biographies or the histories of wars, countries and empires.
This book is well worth the read. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading history or More...
He paints pictures of human life often ignored in biographies or the histories of wars, countries and empires.
This book is well worth the read. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading history or More...
May 30, 2009
Wayne
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Reads like a textbook -- fairly dry & factual -- but it contains some interesting material about what life was like during those four centuries, how things changed and what didn't change. It seems to have a European focus, with material about the middle East, far East, and the new world.
Jun 03, 2010
Lots of reviews say this is hard to read...I disagree. Very entertaining book.
Basically a humanist/historian version of Vaclav Smil.
Basically a humanist/historian version of Vaclav Smil.
Jan 19, 2012
Avis
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He doesn't get 5 stars because of the torturous prose (it must be nasty to read in French), but this is a simply brilliant book.
Oct 05, 2008
Rauwolfia
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I just adore Braudel - his way to combine things together and show you the relations between them. Super!
Apr 04, 2010
Stephen
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Fascinating stuff but so broad-ranging I lost focus, for the time being.
Feb 12, 2012
Feb 07, 2012
