The book brings together several articles on the nature of history that the famous French historian from the Annales group Fernand Braudel (1902-1985) published between 1940 and the early 1960s. The author compares history with other human sciences in order to determine the possibilities of their mutual enrichment. In his generalizations, he outlines the ways of convergence of the human sciences, the place of the idea of longevity (la longue durée) as the essence of the historical process, the role of mathematics and computers in social scientific knowledge. CONTENTS: Foreword by the translator 5 Preface 9 HISTORICAL TIMES 11 The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean world in the era of Philip II ( excerpt from the preface) 11 Positions of history in 1950 13 HISTORY AND OTHER HUMAN SCIENCES 30 History and social sciences: long duration (La longue durée) 30I. History and duration 32II. Dispute over short time 40III. Communication and Social Mathematics 44IV. The time of the historian, the time of the sociologist 54 Generalities and differences in the human sciences 60 History and sociology 68 Selected bibliography 86 On historical economics 87 Toward serial history: Seville and the Atlantic (1504-1650) 95I. Structure and environment 96II. Structuring the Mid-Atlantic 98III. The triumph of the series 101IV. Purpose: history of 105V production. Write long or write well? 107Is there a geography of the biological individual? 108On the concept of social history 122I. Western specificity (XI-XIII centuries), reduced to model 124II. The West and Russia 128III. What is social history? 131Demography and Measurements of the Human Sciences 134I. "Thresholds" by Ernst Wagemann 135II. Alfred Sauvy Models 145III. Louis Chevalier: towards biological history 154History and the present 167In Brazilian bayans: the present explains the past 167HISTORY OF CIVILIZATIONS: THE PAST EXPLAINS THE PRESENT 178I. Civilization and culture 181The origin and fate of these words 181Attempts at definition 186II. History at the crossroads 203Necessary sacrifices 203Accepted criteria 205On the dialogue between history and the human sciences 208Breaking down the boundaries between specialties 210III. History in the face of modernity 212Longevity of civilizations 212Sustainability of unity and diversity within the world 215Revolutions that end the present time 217Beyond civilizations 219Bibliography 221