This book by Braudel covers the history of the main civilizations of the world. Overall, I liked the book, but it is a very slow read I thought.
Braudel was French and intended this book as a high school textbook in France; perhaps for better students. It was not accepted for this purpose. I tend to agree that it might have been a bit much for people of high school age, but maybe his point was to raise standards to what they might possibly be. I'll leave that debate to others.
The author did not follow the usual "kings, dates and battles" approach. It seemed to me that he took the viewpoint of someone above the fray and included economics, arts and other important aspects of civilizations to a greater extent than usual, and put it all in some sort of context, including where different civilizations come into contact. Made the history all the more interesting I think.
As an American, I found it interesting to see how things looked from a French perspective. It was somewhat different from what I usually read by American and British authors. That being said, it is a bit difficult to explain that difference. Maybe it was the context and examples being taken from French history and experience that are often less well known to Americans (and the British perhaps as well). Given that there was a lot of ground to cover in a limited amount of space, many examples were mentioned in quick passing, so it could be hard to keep up so to speak.
This book was translated from French by Richard Mayne, who is British. Braudel apparently used some very complex sentence structure that the translator maintained using British English. The result was something that I found difficult to read other than slowly. Took a lot of the enjoyment out of the book for me.
The book was first written in the 1960's, but some updates were present in this edition, at least up to the 1990's. Not sure at all how that was done, since Braudel died in 1985.
There is a large amount of introductory material in the book. I'd say to read it as it explains Braudel's approach, among other things, which is helpful in making sense of the big picture he is going for in the book.
I found the chapters on Islamic civilization quite interesting. Made many current events in that part of the world make much better sense to me.
Braudel also seemed to be quite "respectful" when talking about American civilization which not every French author seems wiling to do. This is also much on how Anglo-Saxon civilization and the use of English became and still are (to large extent at least) so dominate.
There is more that could be said covering other parts of the book, but I will leave that to others to discuss.
The book is about 600 pages, and I think would take a while for most people to get through. Still, I think it a worthwhile read I think.
Braudel was French and intended this book as a high school textbook in France; perhaps for better students. It was not accepted for this purpose. I tend to agree that it might have been a bit much for people of high school age, but maybe his point was to raise standards to what they might possibly be. I'll leave that debate to others.
The author did not follow the usual "kings, dates and battles" approach. It seemed to me that he took the viewpoint of someone above the fray and included economics, arts and other important aspects of civilizations to a greater extent than usual, and put it all in some sort of context, including where different civilizations come into contact. Made the history all the more interesting I think.
As an American, I found it interesting to see how things looked from a French perspective. It was somewhat different from what I usually read by American and British authors. That being said, it is a bit difficult to explain that difference. Maybe it was the context and examples being taken from French history and experience that are often less well known to Americans (and the British perhaps as well). Given that there was a lot of ground to cover in a limited amount of space, many examples were mentioned in quick passing, so it could be hard to keep up so to speak.
This book was translated from French by Richard Mayne, who is British. Braudel apparently used some very complex sentence structure that the translator maintained using British English. The result was something that I found difficult to read other than slowly. Took a lot of the enjoyment out of the book for me.
The book was first written in the 1960's, but some updates were present in this edition, at least up to the 1990's. Not sure at all how that was done, since Braudel died in 1985.
There is a large amount of introductory material in the book. I'd say to read it as it explains Braudel's approach, among other things, which is helpful in making sense of the big picture he is going for in the book.
I found the chapters on Islamic civilization quite interesting. Made many current events in that part of the world make much better sense to me.
Braudel also seemed to be quite "respectful" when talking about American civilization which not every French author seems wiling to do. This is also much on how Anglo-Saxon civilization and the use of English became and still are (to large extent at least) so dominate.
There is more that could be said covering other parts of the book, but I will leave that to others to discuss.
The book is about 600 pages, and I think would take a while for most people to get through. Still, I think it a worthwhile read I think.
