The French historical school founded by Marc Bloch and Lucien Febvre around the journal Annales d'histoire économique et sociale — rejecting political and event history in favor of long-term structures, geography, economy, and collective mentalities.
Against political/event history: the Annales School declared traditional history — focused on kings, battles, and diplomatic events — to be superficial. Total history: the ambition to integrate economic, social, geographic, and psychological dimensions into a single analytical framework. Three generations: Bloch & Febvre (mentalités and social history), Braudel (the longue durée and the Mediterranean), Le Goff & Le Roy Ladurie (cultural and micro-history). The most influential school in 20th-century historiography, reshaping what questions historians ask.
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