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This short text contains a few layers: first, it reports on the author’s evolving interest in and work on what she calls Median Europe; second, it tries to define Median Europe, third, it presents the role the thinkers of that part of Europe playin its quest for self‑understanding and definition; fourth, it puts forth the thesis that these thinkers have much to offer to those who search for a new narrative on Europe now; fifth, it explains why these Median European voices are not betterheard, especially in France; and sixth, drawing practical conclusions from the above points, the author presents a large research and editorial project she is involved in that is meant to change this situation.

In 1958, in response to what he considered a general crisis in the human sciences and as a plea for their rapprochement, Fernand Braudel clarified his idea of time as a social construct, rather than a simple chronological parameter. This article begins by looking at the lessons of the idea of a plurality of social times, grounded in the concept of Braudel’s the longue durée, for social analysis. The first lesson was that we live in one singular “world.” His insight led to the basic premise of world-systems analysis that historical social systems come into being as a unique and indivisible sets of singular, longue durée structures with a beginning and an end, that is, recognizable over the long term, but not forever into the past or into the future. As Braudel observed, the reproduction of these structures —according to world-systems analysis, the axial division of labor, the interstate system, and the structures of knowledge— exhibit secular trends and cyclical rhythms that may be observed over the life of the system. Eventually, however, the processes reproducing these structures run up against asymptotes, or limitations, in overcoming the contradictions of the system and the system ceases to exist. The second great lesson of Braudel’s longue durée has been to allow us to see clearly not only the singularity of our world, but its uniqueness as well, that is, a world that has now expanded to become global, a world that consists of the three analytically distinct but functionally, and existentially, inseparable structural arenas, as never before existed. The third great lesson of the longue durée was to allow us to interpret crisis as the possibility for fundamental structural change. Finally this article examines the ethical and methodological consequences of the simultaneous exhaustion of the processes insuring endless accumulation and containing class struggle taking place contemporaneously with the collapse of their co-constitutive intellectual structures.

En 1958, en respuesta a lo que consideró una crisis general en las ciencias humanas y en un intento de reconciliación, Fernand Braudel replanteó su idea del tiempo como constructo social y no como un simple parámetro cronológico. El presente artículo comienza con las lecciones de la idea de pluralidad en tiempos sociales, con base en el concepto de Braudel de la Longue Durée para el análisis social. La primera lección fue que vivimos en un \"mundo\" singular. Su enfoque derivó en la premisa principal del análisis sistema-mundo que dicta que los sistemas sociales históricos surgen como un grupo de individuos únicos e indivisibles, Longue Durée de la larga duración dentro de un comienzo y un fin que son reconocibles a largo plazo pero no para siempre en el pasado ni en el futuro. Como observó Braudel, la reproducción de dichas estructuras--según el análisis de sistema--mundo, la división axial del trabajo, el sistema interestatal y las estructuras de conocimiento- muestran tendencias seculares y ritmos cíclicos que se pueden observar durante la vida del sistema. Sin embargo, en algún momento, los procesos que reproducen estas estructuras entran en confrontación con asíntotas o limitaciones para superar las contradicciones del sistema, causando que el sistema deje de existir. La segunda gran lección de la Longue Durée de Braudel fue permitirnos ver con claridad no solo la singularidad de nuestro mundo sino también su carácter único. Braudel muestra un mundo que se ha expandido para globalizarse, que está conformado por tres escenarios que son analíticamente diferentes pero funcionales, y existencialmente son inseparables a nivel estructural como no habían existido antes. La tercera gran lección de la Longue Durée fue permitirnos interpretar la crisis como una oportunidad para generar cambios estructurales fundamentales. Por último, este artículo estudia las consecuencias éticas y metodológicas del agotamiento simultáneo del proceso de aseguramiento de la interminable acumulación y contención de la lucha de clases que se presenta hoy en día tras el colapso de las estructuras intelectuales co-constitutivas.

The 25th anniversary of the death of Fernand Braudel is used to draw attention to two different ways in which he conjoined history and geography. It is argued that Braudel was aware that geography is a constructed ordering device for historical studies, and that this insight is being pursued in a wide range of contemporary historical studies which might be labelled ‘geohistoriographical’. Particular attention is paid to work in Atlantic history and Enlightenment studies. It is suggested that geographers have an important part to play in furthering this insight, provided they keep to a rigorously nominalist conception of the role of place in such historical studies.

En el mismo inmueble donde vivía la familia, «residía un grupo de universitarios perteneciente a la (entonces) joven y poco conocida organización católica Opus Dei. Ese contacto, más o menos estrecho, con gente del Opus Dei me aportó, en mi formación intelectual, ya entonces una dimensión universalista, católica en el sentido etimológico de la palabra» y que rompía los moldes culturales de una ciudad provinciana en unos años como aquellos de fuerte aislamiento internacional. Virrey, primero, primer ministro después, parece una elección certera por parte de quienes, como Vázquez de Prada y Sánchez Marcos, eran castellanos afincados en Cataluña. Se implicó decididamente en el programa Erasmus, que le llevó a participar, junto con el historiador holandés Hugo de Schepper y el alemán Heinz Duchhardt, en la conmemoración del 350 aniversario de la paz de Westfalia, hito capital en el sistema internacional del Antiguo Régimen en Europa.

Cette section regroupe tous les éditoriaux publiés dans les Annales depuis leur fondation, en 1929, sous le nom d’Annales d’histoire économique et sociale, jusqu’à l’annonce du nouveau partenariat noué avec Cambridge University Press, en 2017. Viennent aussi s’y glisser quelques introductions de numéros spéciaux particulièrement significatives : en tout vingt-neuf textes, d’inégale longueur, qui dessinent le portrait en pointillé d’une revue bientôt centenaire. Leur lecture continue permet de mesurer les innovations, les reprises, les écarts, voire les reniements à mesure que se succèdent les générations et que se renouvelle le comité de rédaction. Inédit en anglais comme en français, ce recueil donne surtout à lire une autre histoire de l’« école des Annales », à partir des positions prises dans la revue, et non dans des textes publiés ailleurs et sans lien organique avec elle. Ainsi peuton espérer dépasser une vision mythifiée de la revue comme « école », aussi célèbre qu’elle est méconnue dans son fonctionnement concret. This section gathers all the editorials that have been published in the Annales, from the creation of the journal in 1929 under the masthead Annales d’histoire économique et sociale to the announcement of the new partnership with Cambridge University Press in the first issue of 2017. A few particularly significant introductions to special issues have also been included. In total, these twenty-nine texts of unequal length sketch a portrait of a journal that has now existed for nearly a century. Reading them as a whole gives an idea of the innovations, gaps, turns, and even retractions as subsequent generations have replaced earlier ones and the editorial board has changed. This is the first time these editorials have been published as a collection, in French or in English: as such, they tell an alternative story of the “Annales school,” based on the positions taken in the journal itself rather than in disparate texts published elsewhere. We hope this helps in moving beyond a “mythologized” vision of the journal as a famous “school” whose concrete workings have nevertheless remained in the shadows.

This introduction to this pluridisciplinary meeting is mainly devoted to celebrate two exceptional pluridisciplinary scientists. Fernand Braudel was simultaneously a historian, geographer, sociologist and economist. The neurophysiologist Jean Delacour was open to other disciplines from philosophy to physics. Braudel’s global point of view of history created new fields in human sciences, paving the way for new active research. For instance, the emergence of the very singular development of world-cities remains to be well understood from detailed network analysis in order to find the driving process of such an emergent deep localization. In a similar way, Delacour’s physiological evidence for unconscious mind resulting from energy saving during sleep remains to be explored in details both for humans and for animals with expected consequences for managing neural networks as well as for quantum computing, and for poetry. The papers of this meeting are shortly introduced.

What is the audience for French Studies in the Anglophone world? Who is interested in reading about France, and what kinds of books, essays, and articles arouse their curiosity?

The 1930 Centenary of French Algeria celebrated a triumphalist vision of Algerian history that offset France's supposed colonial successes against the long sweep of North African history. Professors of the Faculté des lettres d'Alger played a leading role in elaborating this narrative through a series of historical texts published for the occasion. In them, they drew on prior historical and geographical research to defend the legitimacy of French colonialism across North Africa. Though dominant, their interpretation of North African history was not universally accepted. The following year, it encountered its first substantial critique from within French academia. Viewed together, these competing North African historical narratives reveal French imaginaries of a consolidating African empire—and the possibilities of thinking beyond it—in the interwar period.