Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Century, Vol. I: The Structure of Everyday Life (Civilization & Capitalism, 15th-18th Century)

I am only a hundred or so pages into Volume 1, and so delighted I figure I owe the author a good review.There are several notable aspects to the writing.It is not a compendium of dates and kings and battles. It is divided into subjects, such as Population, Food, Clothing, Trade, etc. Each topic is explored as a whole, wandering over time and space as needed, not necessarily in any strict order. You get a good grasp of the Big Picture as far few books of any kind do, let alone history books. If you want to know what life and society were like, this is the book to get.The language has some quirks, a few words that seem a slight bit out of place, and few sentence constructs which most editors dull down. I do not know if this is an artifact of the translation, or whether the translator was trying to preserve similar quirkiness in the original French. But I like it. It avoids the stuffiness of most dull histories.It drills down amazingly deep in some places, quoting from town registers of 1537 or such.It also explains all sorts of stuff that is not obvious. One section, discussing why Asians ate less meat than Europeans, explains this by saying that Asians grew rice and Europeans grew wheat. Rice can be grown year after year in the same field, whereas wheat so depletes the soil that it must lie fallow one year out of every two or three, with livestock fertilizer replenishing it, and if you're going to support all those animals, you may as well eat some too. There is some discussion of the three year cycle (wheat, oats, fallow) being more common in northern Europe and the two year cycle (wheat, fallow) being more common in southern Europe. I honestly do not know if this is common knowledge or if there are other reasons for the difference in meat eating, but I can google away and read up on this, now that I have the basic concept.This last example, of meat and fallow fields, is what makes this book so fascinating to me. I am learning far more than I would have thought possible from a professor's history book, and having fun in the process.

The book is erudite and stimulating. It centers on Europe but does have a global scope. Some of the language is a bit antiquated--the author uses words such as "undeveloped" and "backward" to describe nomadic cultures, for example. But considering that the French original was first published in the 1960s, it is understandable.The copy I received has too many highlights & writing on it though. I understand that it's a used a copy, but I wish the seller made it clear in the description.

Civilization and Capitalism Vol.1 : Sets the foundations of the Fernand Braudel three stage model:First Stage-V.1 :The material civilization of every day life. A lively description of material every day life between 15th-18th century. It's mind blowing and It's like being in a time capsule. This first volumne sets the stage and the foundations of Braudel's three stage model:1st stage: The structure of every day life (the material life)2nd stage: The emergence of capitalism3rd stage: The upper layer of social structures that control and manipulate the 2nd and the 1st stage by creating intentionally (or not) "zones of turbulence" in order to extract social and material benefits and their class reproduction.

Interesting book, but style is old school. Very interesting material, but the style is not very engaging for the modern reader. Too much focus on individual sources and anecdotes, and not nearly enough on trends. Also doesn't incorporate interdisciplinary perspectives.

This is more like a textbook. Still, it was a very interesting and informative read.

But tough to read, very, very academic.

Good experience with you.

Fascinating.