analyis Annals interpretation of history with example.

Annals (Latin name, year from annuls, a year) are concise form of historical interpretation which record events clonologically year by year.
Oxford dictionary define annals as a narrative of events written year by year.
Annales school of thought and historiography are the group of historians associated with a kind of style of producing historical knowledge which is different from ancients, medieval and contemporary historians. It was first emerged in French 20th century specifically 1929. The history written by these historians was also known as “the history of new generation” they rejected the history written by past historian such as Alexander and Caesar, Gengis khan, and Napoleon who wrote history about; political and military history, Concentration of analysis of short period and narrative style of events. Their death led to the changes of history into a larger and more humanitarian by its rejection of predominant conception of writing history. The changes of history associated with several movements.
Peter Burke has divided the movement into three phases.
1st PHASE (1920-1945)
The movement was very radical and strong opposes the traditional political history, the initiator were Marc Bloch and Lucian Febvre.
2nd PHASE (1945-1968)
The movement became a school of thought with its main concept( conjucture-structure)and method. History of changes over the long term. The initiators were Fernand Braudel and Ernst Labrouse.
3rd PHASE (1968-1989)
The school became more fragmented and shift from the social economic to the social cultural. The initiators were Ariel, Bourdieu, Goffman. The movement led to the introduction of school originated from journal called Annales and historie Economique et sociale. The annals of economic of society which was the platform of the annals school of thought where they published their work/research which was written in French language and translated in English language. In this journal there are features of the annals which published in different books and monographs also published their works through lecture in various universities in French and America.(Spickard,1998)

THE ANNALS AND THEIR INTERPRETATION OF HISTORY
The annals school of historiography employed social scientific methods by focusing mostly the social administration of the societies rather than on political and diplomatic dimensions that had become common historiography (Spickard,1998)

Annales wrote history which have been highly dynamic in the sense that it changes the modification by either shifting the area of emphasis. They started looking different phenomenon occurred in the societies at different time and their underlying causes.(Braudel,1981)

Annals interpretation of history interpreted history that based on the fields like geography, anthropology, sociology, economics and psychology. This historiography is highly interdisciplinary in the course of producing historical literature the school cuts across the boundaries of various discipline that means the school employs sources from various field.(Traian,1976)

Annals Interpretation of history focused on total history. It concentrated on every activity done in the society day to day throughout the year. For them everything must be recaptured and relocated in the general frame work of history, so that despite the difficulties, the fundamental paradoxes and contradictions we may respect the unity of history which is also the unity of life. (Braudel,1981)

Annals wrote history focused on climate history. They have tried to trace over a long period of time the changes that have been occurring in climate of an area and they found these aspects are very importance in the social and economic interest of people. It sharpen how people behave hence determine history. (Spickard,1998)

Annals interpretation of history avoided political chronological and individual based history. Traditional historians arrange events in chronological period what they care is just the event happened but for the annals put aside the aspect of political and based with other aspects and they were against individual history and they focused on the entire societies.(Braudel,1981)
Annals interpretation of history were hostile to the class analysis of Marxist historiography that had dominated the historical scholarship since 19th century. A shift from Marxist interpretation of history to a new method of producing historical knowledge that referred to the history based on human activities rather than on problem oriented and analytic history.(Traian,1976)
The annals interpretation of history focused on the long term history they wanted to look for period of long time. Example the Braudel and his doctorate of “master work” took more than two decade to write and not about personal or event but it was about Mediterranean and the Mediterranean world in age of Philip (1949) embodied the three tired approach. (Braudel,1981)
Annals interpretation of history was also based on the roles of environment which comprises the mountains, plains, oceans and season and how they shape human habitation. (La Capra,1982)
Annal interpretation of history criticized positivism which narrated on the analysis of short periods adopted a traditional narrative of events and analyzed history almost exclusively from the political military point of view and rebelled against empirical history which focused on politics great individual and chronological events(Spickard,1998)
Annales historians continue to critique some of the history’s earlier schools of thought, claiming that events cannot be explained using reference points and cultural back ground of the time because the exact mind frame of those involved cannot be known for certain, only speculated upon. (Braudel,1981)
Annals interpretation of history tries to show the role of Mediterranean in the civilization of the world. Braudel say that the civilization of the world begins in Mediterranean seabed itself the layers of clay, sand and limestone from which the Egyptians carved their tombs and built their temples, Greeks, Romans and Mesopotamia was shaped by the Mediterranean. (Spickard,1998)
Annales interpretation of history studied what they called collective illusion and pointed the possible causes of such phenomenon. In the Royal Touch they looked at the belief that the king’s touch could cure people from diseases. They compared France and England on long term scale and analyzed how such collective illusion survived after the middle ages. Their aim was to problematize the fact that people believed such improbable things for a prolonged period in time and to point to possible causes of such phenomenon.(Traian,1976)
Annales interpretation of history interpreted history of their own time rather than earlier periods. Example Bloch attacks the idol of origins arguing that historical phenomena ought to be explained in terms of their own time, rather than of earlier periods.(Bloch, 1961)
Some of the annales divided their object of study into three aspects which are material civilization where production takes place immobile, Economic life the place of trade and distribution, Capitalist mechanism the realm of consumption, where change is more rapid.(Spickard,1998)
Annales school rejected dominance of Leopold Von Ranke’s scientific nationalist method engaged with Marxist historians in their shared interest in structure but gave greater emphasis to geography rather than economics.(Braudel,1981)
Annals history has turned to a broader range of topic and now confers dignity less selective everything has now become historical, histories now diverge from presenting humanity with the notion of it is own superiority and the ineluctability of mankind progress. (Braudel,1981)
Weakness of annals interpretation of history

  Can be per-iodized and therefore be made historically fashionable or not depending on the time we find ourselves in, contemporary scholars like Iggers and Hunt have insisted on reducing the annales historian’s revolutionary ideas to proper definable school.
 Mentalities represented the unconscious patterns that guided the actions of individuals. Annals historian focused on the entire society and not individuals done in the past.
 Annals isolated political and diplomatic history and favor mostly social, economic and cultural history.

 Annales ceased being a national interpreter and explores the secrets of societies rather than the secrets of nations more than a journal and less than a doctrine.
Annals historians of the school could not separate themselves from rival methodologies that mean they were opposing application of methodology on write history.

 Annals historian wrote history of everyday activities in the society. This was impossible for the historian to write every activity in the society which may lead to confusion.
Conclusion

The Annales historiographer have believed that past events process, causes and purposes can hardly be known absolute such that the Annales have doubted in the past. Once there was a saying that “event are only event only if they are selected by historian, if they are not selected by historian they remain non-historical”. Hence there a lot of past that are not yet known.