A Weighty Approach to Social History

One of Ferdinand Braudel’s contribution to the Annales school was his three tiered model of analysis, which includes: 1) structure or longue duree (geography, long run norms and habits, popular understanding), 2) conjunctures (economic changes, population and immigration, technology) and 3) the historical event (shortest duration, human made, political or diplomatic event).

To better understand this model, I applied it to E. P. Thompson’s article “Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism”.  Thompson’s work gave voice to 18^th and 19^th century British working class, examining all aspects of their work, life, culture, family and community in relationship to the Industrial Revolution.  At the structure level, he presents a number of factors, to include the concept of work in the British farming and artisan society, the spread of population across villages and farms, the limited access to clocks by lower class, and large number of “leisure” activities.  At the conjuncture level, he discusses the technology changes that result not only less expensive timepieces, but also introduces the industry requirement for scheduled work times; the instantiation of the concept of time as money; and the development of time as a moral attribute, driven into the culture through religion and education. 

I struggled a bit to determine the first level, or the historical event.  Was it the transition of the British worker from pre-industrial to post-industrial?  Or is it the establishment of the industrial worker, with a highly regimented work schedule (compared to a pre-industrial revolution irregular work schedule)?  Or perhaps, the advances in technology that required a different type of worker.  I would be interested in what others might think.

In thinking through this model, it feels complex and burdensome to apply to a historical problem, particularly when using the histoire totale approach – in other words, looking at the historical event across all the social science disciplines, then trying to organize the information into these levels.   But as J.H. Hexter states “Histoire probleme marches under the standard of elegance; histoire totale, under the standard of abundance; but all history and historians worth the name march under the standard of curiosity – and excellence.”