Everything must be recaptured and relocated in the general framework of history, so that despite the difficulties, the fundamental paradoxes and contradictions, we may respect the unity of history which is also the unity of life.

Indeed he appeared to think that these people form the real material of civilization. The third level of time is that of events (histoire événementielle). "
Braudel's Mediterranean is centered on the sea but just as important it is also the desert and the mountains.

Braudel has been considered one of the greatest of the modern historians who have emphasized the role of large-scale socioeconomic factors in the making and writing of history. His scholarship focused on three main projects each representing several decades of intense study: The Mediterranean (1923–49 then 1949–66) Civilization and Capitalism (1955–79) and the unfiniFernand Braudeld Identity of France (1970–85). As the dominant leader of the Annales School of historiography in the 1950s and 1960s he exerted enormous influence on historical writing in France and other countries.