Achievements of the Annales School

Abstract

In his presidential address last year Robert Gallman quoted a letter written by Lucien Febvre to Marc Bloch. Febvre and Bloch were the first editors of the journalAnnales, and Febvre's exhortation on this occasion to break down the barriers among the social sciences was only one among many. Gallman's “Notes on the New Social History” would have pleased both French scholars, especially the allusion to verve and “trumpet call.” Today we are concerned with the role of economics in the galaxy of disciplines theAnnalesclaim to unify in their “grand alliance.”