History Was Written at the Wrong Speed
In 1929 Marc Bloch and Lucien Febvre attacked histoire événementielle (event history): battles, treaties, and kings. They argued this is mere froth.
| Approach | Focus | Key Feature |
|---|---|---|
| Event History | Surface acts | Archives record it, but it hides daily reality |
| Problem-Oriented | Total human activity | Uses geography, economics, and anthropology |
Fernand Braudel built this into three speeds of time:
| Layer | Speed | Contents |
|---|---|---|
| Longue durée | Centuries | Climate, mountains, soil |
| Conjoncture | Decades | Prices, wages, states |
| Événement | Days | Battles, treaties |
Braudel's verdict: events are foam on the tide. Philip II was constrained by geography far more than he shaped it.
What It Bought, and What It Cost
The Gains: Serial quantification, history of mentalités (how ordinary people felt), and geography as a historical actor. Works like Montaillou rely on this.
The Cost: Structures move so slowly that human agency vanishes. Critics called the extreme version history without people.
The Pitfall: Most bad historical arguments are speed errors. They explain structural shifts with events, or dismiss contingencies because structures loom large.
The Exception: Marc Bloch, who founded the school, was shot by the Gestapo in 1944. An événement can end everything. Use the three speeds to ask which clock a question runs on.