The Development Of The Idea Of Structure In Annals School "Structure"

Since the 1920's,historiography theory and method of the Annales School is the mainstream of the French historiography and even the whole western historiography, which set up a new concept and adopted a new research method. The historiography scholars should pay attention to"structure", which is an important concept of the Annales School. This paper intends to systematically introduce the origin and evolution of the concept"structure", analyze its characteristics and face its drawbacks. This paper would serve the future historical research in a better way and provide reference for other historians.There are six parts in this paper:The introduction introduces the foundation of the thesis topic and the general situation of the research of the concept"structure"home and abroad and briefly analyzes the concept"structure".Chapter One discusses the origin of the concept"structure"and traces the long history tradition of French humanism. Any historical theory is not achieved on one day. It has its profound cultural background. The overall French history tradition and the attention on geographical function have great influence on the formation of"structure". The first generation of historians started their structural analysis on historiography under the guidance of the overall historiography views.Chapter Two is the establishment and spreading of"structure"and is the focus point of the thesis. It mainly introduces the origin of Braudel's"structure", Braudel's explanation of"structure"and Braudel's practice of"structure". As a famous historian of the Annales School, Braudel made great contribution to the development of"structure". He did structural analysis on history in his historiography book.Chapter three analyzes the development of the"structure"under the New Historiography MovementChapter four is the discussion and comment. This part correctly recognizes the limitations of the analyzing model of"structure"in order to promote the development of the historiography.Chapter five is Conclusion. Then elicit the essence and limitations through the analysis whether it is right or not to inheritance from and criticize on Annales School Structure.