The The Mind and Method of the Historian

In The Mind and Method of the Historian Le Roy Ladurie emphasizes social rather than political or diplomatic themes. This work has been at the core of the Annales school of historians, whose voices have reached every aspect of every kind of historical work.

Le Roy Ladurie here has followed Lucien Febvre and Marc Bloch, who broke radically with traditional historiography by insisting on the importance of taking all levels of society into consideration and emphasizing the collective nature of mentalities. It is mental frameworks that he urges as the basis which has shaped decisions and practices - and he explores these in diverse studies here.

Le Roy Ladurie stands with Fernand Braudel, Marc Bloch, Lucien Febvre and Georges Duby among the greatest of modern historians who pioneered changes in historical studies, world-wide. They form the great names of the Annales School in their stress on long-term social history. The school has been highly influential in setting the agenda for historiography - most notably with especially regarding the use of social scientific methods by historians. Braudel was editor of Annales from 1956-1968. His informal successor as head of the school was Le Roy Ladurie.