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"Braudel's Mediterranean is a tour de force, one of the classics of this century's historical writing."—Charles Tilly, author of As Sociology Meets History
The Mediterranean in the Ancient World is a comprehensive history of the Mediterranean from the first settlers until the fall of Rome. Notes provide a historical context for the work and help readers appreciate the author's love for his subject.
Fernand Braudel (1912-1985), was a leading French historian and author of, among other books, the groundbreaking The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II (1949). One of the founders of the Annales School in France, Braudel insisted on treating the Mediterranean region as a whole, irrespective of religious and national divides. Braudel's new historiography rejected political history as the dominant discipline and espoused a 'total history' or a 'history from below' that would tell the story of the vast majority of humanity hitherto excluded from the grand narrative. At the time of the book's appearance, this premise was revolutionary. The contributors to Braudel Revisited assess the impact of Braudel's work on today's academic world, in light of subsequent methodological shifts. Engaging with Braudel's texts as well as with his ideas, the essays in this volume speak to the enduring legacy of his work on the ongoing exploration of early modern history.
"Braudel's Mediterranean is a tour de force, one of the classics of this century's historical writing."—Charles Tilly, author of As Sociology Meets History
From the author of Memory and the Mediterranean, a comprehensive history of the Italian city states from 1450 to 1650. In the fifteenth century, even before the city states of the Apennine Peninsula began to coalesce into what would become, several centuries later, a nation, “Italy” exerted enormous influence over all of Europe and throughout the Mediterranean. Its cultural, economic, and political dominance is utterly astonishing and unique in world history. Viewing the Italy?the many Italies?of that time through the lens of today allows us to gather a fragmented, multi-faceted, and seemingly contradictory history into a single unifying narrative that speaks to our current reality as much as it does to a specific historical period. This is what the acclaimed French historian, Fernand Braudel, achieves here. He brings to life the two extraordinary centuries that span the Renaissance, Mannerism, and the Baroque and analyzes the complex interaction between art, science, politics, and commerce during Italy’s extraordinary cultural flowering.
What is the Mediterranean? - Physical setting - Trading empires - Sea routes - Mare Nostrum - Christian Mediterranean - Resurgent Islam - Battleground of the European powers - Globalized Mediterranean.
The emphasis of the book, therefore, is on the sea itself, the ships which travelled it, and the men who sailed them. The new perspectives here offered are both multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary, and reflect the state of the art in current research, much of which has not been previously available in English. The book aims to open up the subject to English-speaking readers, in particular to those interested in maritime history; the history of the early modern world; and the historiographical legacy of Fernand Braudel. --Book Jacket.
Philip II of Macedonia (382–336 BCE), unifier of Greece, author of Greece's first federal constitution, founder of the first territorial state with a centralized administrative structure in Europe, forger of the first Western national army, first great general of the Greek imperial age, strategic and tactical genius, and military reformer who revolutionized warfare in Greece and the West, was one of the greatest captains in the military history of the West. Philip prepared the ground, assembled the resources, conceived the strategic vision, and launched the first modern, tactically sophisticated and strategically capable army in Western military history, making the later victories of his son Alexander possible. Philip's death marked the passing of the classical age of Greek history and warfare and the beginning of its imperial age. To Philip belongs the title of the first great general of a new age of warfare in the West, an age that he initiated with his introduction of a new instrument of war, the Macedonian phalanx, and the tactical doctrines to ensure its success. As a practitioner of the political art, Philip also had no equal. In all these things, Philip exceeded Alexander's triumphs. This book establishes Philip's legitimate and deserved place in military history, which, until now, has been largely minimized in favor of his son by the classicist writers who have dominated the field of ancient biography. Richard Gabriel, renowned military historian, has given us the first military biography of Philip II of Macedonia.
