Fernand Braudel was elected on April¹ 1950 to the Chair in the History of Modern Civilization, thanks to the efforts of historian Augustin Renaudet and linguist Marcel Bataillon. According to Bataillon, when defending both the chair's continuation and Braudel's candidacy, the holder of this chair should focus on describing the " intrahistory of silent men ". Indeed, in his inaugural lecture on December¹ 1950, Braudel planned to focus his work on three  axes: firstly, the historian's " redoubtable but exhilarating " responsibility to mingle with contemporary life ; secondly, the pursuit of a " grande histoire " that incorporates the destiny of singular men ; and thirdly, a tribute to his teacher Lucien Febvre through the revival of some of his cherished ideas, notably against event history reduced to " grands hommes ".

While Braudel emphasizes the enriching effect of an all-encompassing perspective on economic rhythms, social tensions and racial conflicts, he is also wary of oversimplifications and maintains that people make history, just as history shapes people's destinies. This is where one of the determinants of Braudel's vision of history comes into play: the differentiation of temporalities between the time of men and the time of societies, the latter being endowed with " mille vitesses, mille lenteurs ". Braudel then develops the idea of " civilization ", whose history is slow and profound, and whose definition is all the more necessary as the world goes through a period of catastrophes and destruction of symbols in the ^20th century.

In his lectures at the Collège de France between 1950 and 1972, Braudel set about clearing out the new history that corresponded to the irruption of the new times, gathering together economic, social and technical documentation that was often unprecedented. He also played an active part in the creation of a new chair, " Analyse des faits économiques et sociaux ", to replace the " Littérature latine du Moyen Âge " chair, whose aim was to use the methods of history, geography and analysis, establishing permanent exchanges between these different points of view (November 1954).

Braudel gave two classes a week, on Wednesday and Friday (or Saturday) mornings, and addressed cross-cutting themes : " European destinies " (1952-1953), " Modern capitalism before the ^16th century " (1954-1955), " Venice at the end of the ^15th  century and the beginning of the ^16th " (1956-1958), " History of material life from the ^14th to the ^18th century " (1959-1961), " Pour une histoire économique et sociale de la France au ^XVIe siècle " (1962-1966) and " Le monde de 1550 à 1650 " (1967-1970), before completing his courses on " Les grandes lignes de l'histoire de France " (1970-1972). It's hardly surprising, given the breadth of the subjects, the unpublished nature of the documents and the short time available, that many of the courses could not be completed. Above all, Braudel tried to assemble the documentation and define guidelines by successively studying significant points of encounter and questioning disciplines. The last two years were thus an opportunity to examine the history of France through the sieve of new methods and new issues of the historian's profession (geography, language, biology, popular civilization, economics, politics).

Notice written by Marc Verdure (Collège de France - Institut des Civilisations).