Status Updates From Memory and the Mediterranean

“A shared civilization was more easily assimilated when it came to the details of material life. The Cisalpine hood was worn in Rome as well as in colder climates; Italian wine seduced the Gauls…Cooks exchanged recipes and spices, gardeners exchanged seeds and grafts. The sea had long made such voyages possible, but with the unlimited authority of the Empire, barriers fell and transfers happened more quickly.”

“Technical discovery in itself does not necessarily lead to an Industrial Revolution…Every technological revolution has been undermined by the existence of slavery. [] It is unlikely that the English Industrial Revolution, which led to decade upon decade of marked decline in the condition of workers, was really inspired by the desire ‘to relieve human toil.’ Perhaps on the contrary it had become profitable

I am absolutely devouring this book, my first by Braudel. Despite being incomplete and, in a few domains, slightly outdated, it is an excellent work of history. Braudel’s voice is warm and he is not shy to offer his opinion on various aspects of each civilization or on historiography, but it is always clearly demarcated.

“‘Which came first?’ In relation to the overall history of the Mediterranean, this question is not very important. What matters is that an extraordinary capacity for comparatively rapid cultural diffusion had emerged in a world where shipping was still an adventure[]All of the Middle Eastern civilizations of [the Bronze Age], despite some clashes, stood on equal footing with open access from one to another.”

“There was another consequence [of the invention of the plough]. Until now, women had been in charge of the fields and gardens where cereals were grown: everything had depended on their tilling the soil and tending the crop. Men had been first hunters, then herdsmen. But now, men took over the plough, which they alone were allowed to use.”