Tremendous. Really opened my eyes to how physical realities influence history. ( )

I call this the greatest book ever written for the wrong reason --it sets out to demonstrate the way the economic
basis determines the political history, but ends by
admitting the two most important factors in the decline
in the struggle for control of the Mediterranean between Spain and the Turks were Spain's conquest of Portugal
and Turkey's involvement in war with Persia. However, it is a famously thorough description of conditions before those changes. ( )

What strikes the reader is the comprehensive sweep of Braudel's vision. For that ambition he is to be applauded. ( )

paperback

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