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Discuss the origins of the Annales School and its main characteristics.

The end of the nineteenth century marked the time when several professional historians began to

express their disappointment with the state of the historical profession. The focus of their discontent

was the neo-Rankean tradition and they increasingly began to call for progress beyond Ranke. This

called for many outspoken critics of the historical establishment at the time. However, during the early

twentieth century, notable historians in the United States and France also began to purport the

importance of social and economic history. This essay will explore the movement within History

beyond Ranke and discuss the origins of the Annales School of thought, giving reference to its main

characteristic, its inter-disciplinary approach.

In France, the 1920s saw the emergence of a new approach to research in the historical profession. This

‘new kind of history’ promoted the inclusion of all human activities in historical inquiry, emerged

around a journal titled Annales d’histoire Economique et Sociale, and was guided by two prominent

French historians, Marc Bloch (a medievalist historian) and Lucien Febvre (a specialist on the 16th

century). Bloch and Febvre were critical of the dominance of political history and their efforts brought

about the emergence of what became known as the Annales tradition or school.1 Those historians who

came to associate themselves and their work with the Annales School opposed the significance in the

early twentieth century of political history and the work of other historians who followed in the

tradition of the German historian Leopold von Ranke.

Though the Annales School is often credited for changing the conceptions of what constitutes history

significantly, another equally important contribution made by this tradition to the discipline of history

in the twentieth century, is its support for wider inter-disciplinary cooperation.2 The founders of the

movement, Bloch and Febvre, were committed to broadening the range of subject areas studied in the

discipline, and they expressed their encouragement for recognition of the close ties between social,

economic and political structures. They also emphasised the importance of patterns of thought and

behaviour in specific cultural regions leading to the development of a new branch of historical inquiry,

the history of mentalities. Indeed, Bloch and Febvre became pioneers in a variety of new approaches to

history, including comparative history and quantitative history.

1 Burke, P. History and Social Theory. (Polity Press, U.K., 1992) 230.

2 Tosh, J. The Pursuit of History: Aims, Methods and New Directions in the Study of Modern History. (The Silver Library,

Longman: London, 2000), 182.

Comment [MG1]: This could be discussed in a bit more detail as it assumes

that the reader knows what the neo-

Rankean tradition is.

Comment [MG2]: This could be replaced with “this assignment” or the sentence could be restructured entirely to

avoid using either ‘essay’ or ‘assignment’.

For example: The movement of History will be explored followed by the discussion of...

Comment [MG3]: This introduction is a bit too long for this essay. The introduction

should be about 10 % of the final word count, in this case the final word count is

approx. 700 words while this introduction is

over 100 words.

Comment [MG4]: When first introducing an individual, write the first and

last name. There after, you can use just the

surname.

Comment [MG5]: This sentence has

links to the previous paragraph improving the structure of the two paragraphs and

overall assignment.

Comment [MG6]: This was mentioned in the previous paragraph already, so it’s

repetition.

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As such, it is evident that with the addition of these new subject areas of research, methods, theories

and concepts of other academic disciplines began to prove helpful to the historian. The Annales journal,

from when it began January 1929, attempted to position itself as the intellectual leader in social and

economic history. Central to many of the articles published in the journal was a plea for a more

complementary and cooperative inter-disciplinary approach to historical research.3 This characteristic

feature of the Annales tradition was expressed in the very first issue of the Annales d’histoire

economique at sociale, in which the contributors, most notably Bloch and Febvre, explained that they

regretted the non-cooperative relationship between historians and academics in other fields. The

collective support for increased intellectual trade becomes evident when the make-up of the editorial

committee is considered. It included a geographer, a sociologist, an economist, a political scientist, and,

of course, a few historians. In addition, protagonists of the Annales tradition also drew on the

methodologies and theories of anthropology, psychology and linguistics.

In conclusion, the demand for History to evolve was inevitable. The Rankean period of political history

had run its course and the demand for incorporating and collaborating with other disciplines became a

popular trend. By working with other disciplines, History and other subjects could be understood from

a broader perspective and could provide answers relating to the respective subjects that were never

considered before. This made the Annales tradition not only appealing but also a dominant tradition in

the French discipline of history.

3 Burke, P. The French Historical Revolution: The Annales School 1929-89. (Polity Press: Cambridge, 1990), 25.

Comment [MG7]: There should have at least one reference per paragraph. This will

help support your main points and

argument.

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Bibliography

Burke, P. History and Social Theory. Polity Press, U.K., 1992.

Burke, P. The French Historical Revolution: The Annales School 1929-89. Polity Press, Cambridge,

1990

Iggers, G.G. Historiography in the Twentieth Century: From Scientific Objectivity to the Post-modern

Challenge. Wesleyan University Press, London, 1997.

Tosh, J. The Pursuit of History: Aims, Methods and New Directions in the Study of Modern History. 3rd

edition, The Silver Library, Longman, London, 2000.