Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Century, Vol. I: The Structure of Everyday Life [Paperback]

I gave this book a 4 star rating though because I found it too biased, perhaps the author should have concentrated only on Europe and not even touched on other parts of the world because he was not able to do them justice, whether from lack of information or lack of interest is not clear. It is implied throughout the book that the western civilization is superior and even the natural rulers of the world. I wondered too whether he'd change any of his conclusions about how great western development has been if he were publishing this today in view of global warming, pollution, and other legacies.

A great history of the mundane habits of Europeans, but NOT a balanced history of the world.

Braudel hates rice!

Even though Braudel is good at adopting the "bottom up" approach of history he has a penchant for being a bit "judgy" in a very non-relativistic fashion. I really don't think that his preference for European civilisation is that, um, disguised.

Leaving aside the issue of authorial bias, the book is still, dare I say it, highly entertaining. I laughed, and laughed. Also entertaining: His footnotes. I think I would be hard pressed to find a single reference work that he cites in his notes and footnotes. But that is just all part of the fun, dear readers, that is all part of the fun.

When Braudel refers to everyday life, he means it in the strictest sense of the word. The topics covered in this encyclopedic volume are seemingly banal because they constitute the backgrounds of our lives: corn, wheat, rice, clothing, buildings, money, and other commonplace items that we take for granted in our day to day existence. Other sections deal with discerning the population of the world in a time when census records were crude or nonexistent, the development of heavy industry and its effect on the world, diseases, and shipping. The emphasis here is on economics and how the growth (or lack of) economies increases or decreases the growth of a society and how that society or region waxed or waned in prominence.

Much of the time, the greatness of Braudel's book is in a detail, or a turn of a phrase. For example, the author concludes that the massive pyramid structures and immense jungle cities of the Mesoamerican cultures resulted not from huge markets or an intrinsic need to construct enormous edifices. Instead, he traces their societal structure to agriculture, specifically the reliance on maize as the staple crop. In the warm climates of Central America, corn does not take much work to plant or maintain. This left the indigenous populations with plenty of time on their hands to build monuments and participate in elaborate religious rituals.

"Structures of Everyday Life" appears to be a huge book, and it is, but there are so many illustrations, maps, and charts that it does not take nearly as long to get through it as one might think. I read somewhere that Braudel traveled and worked abroad in places where he could obtain copies of primary historical documents, whether they were paintings, letters, financial statements, or other relevant documents. He gathered these by the thousands over the years and used them as the basis for his wide-ranging researches. You simply must admire a historian who notices someone picking food out of a bowl with his fingers and then compares this to another painting some years later where the figures are using utensils. Most people just do not think to look at things like this.

Braudel's book is a valuable contribution to historical studies, but I don't think I will read the other two volumes in the series. The amount of information in this volume is so overwhelming that I don't think I could assimilate the vast amount of facts in the other two books. As far as "Structures of Everyday Life" go, even reading one or two chapters is enough to get the gist of what Braudel is trying to say. Reading the whole thing is like reading an encyclopedia; it is fascinating but difficult.