This book provides a critical history of the movement associated with the journal Annales, from its foundation in 1929 to the present. Burke argues that this movement has been the single most important force in the development of what is sometimes called the 'new history'.

Burke distinguishes three main generations in the development of the Annales School. The first generation included Lucien Febvre and Marc Bloch, who fought against the old historical establishment and founded the journal Annales. The second generation was dominated by Braudel, whose magnificent work on the Mediterranean has became a modern classic. The third generation includes well-known contemporary historians such as Duby, Le Goff and Le Roy Ladurie.

Wide-ranging and yet concise, this is an accessible examination of one of the most important historical movements of the twentieth century.