Un Braudel o più Braudel ?

Abstract

This essay challenges the idea that Fernand Braudel was defined by La Méditerranée. It shows instead that his work developed through three major projects—La Méditerranée, Civilisation matérielle, économie et capitalisme, and L’Identité de la France—each linked to different phases of his career and to changing intellectual contexts. While the early success of La Méditerranée shaped his public image, it was only one part of a broader trajectory marked by institutional leadership, an international vision of the social sciences, and a sustained effort to rethink historical time. The essay highlights how Braudel repeatedly renewed his questions and methods, moving from Mediterranean space to global economic structures and finally to the long formation of France. It argues that understanding Braudel requires reading his works together, as expressions of a coherent but evolving approach to history, rather than reducing him to a single book.