Total history in the peasants of languedoc by emanuel le roy ladurie

Abstract

Total history is a term that describes the historical paradigm and approach initiated by French historians of the Annales school. Total history emphasizes all aspects that exist in the dimensions of human life and utilizes approaches from other social science theories. This movement brought brand-new historical research into wider scope than traditional history which tends to focus on politics, institutions, and great figures in the course of history. Moreover, the focus of history writing carried out by the Annales school has broadened history from around events and great figures (great man history) to a wider aspect of a particular community/entity covering currents, trends, and cycles of the economic, social, geography, and psychology dimension, as well as other contextual factors that have a significant effect on human life activities. The Peasants of Languedoc is an example of a masterpiece that was born from the ideas of the Annales school. Ladurie provides an explanatory, chronological, and historical analysis enriched by quantitative and statistical sources such as data on tithe (a tenth of income taxation), farm laborers' wages, taxes, rents, and profits of the Languedoc society, especially the peasant. This book also considers other factors such as geographical and climatic aspects of the country. Ladurie explains the cycles and trends that occur in the economy of Languedoc, and analyzes the social psychology of the Languedoc community during the phases in the "great agrarian cycle.