May I know more about the theory of "long period" - with regard to the interpretation of historical events?

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That Italian Wikipedia article seems rather unconnected to other pages and to other pages in other languages. Still, it appears to describe a variant of Longue durée. This French term then is used at least in English and German historiography – and apparently in Italian as well? So take the following with the appropriate amount of salt and maybe further clarify the question if it shouldn't fit perfectly.

Those names of researchers to look out for at the start are therefore those influenced by the French annales school of thought: Bloch, Braudel, Febvre. Basically this school of thought sees more continuity in history as opposed to the ideation of disruption of the flow of time that follows from most characterisation of history in periods. The longue durée tries to look at history on three levels of analysis:

  • longue durée (proper) – the really long time that gives the structure, lays foundations, slowly changes and provides the most keys for understanding the other levels (example pharaonic Egypt as a point of orientation)

  • moyenne durée (intermediate length) – primarily oriented on economic processes, like business cycles (example of a long moyenne durée may be found in Kondratiev waves)

  • événement (~event) – the most similar to traditional historiography and according to annalists the least insight-providing one. Before Braudel this was almost identical to ordinary political history

It should be clear now that this not about opposing theories anymore. Like in any good dialectic process the most fruitful way to proceed is in considering a synthesis of approaches. In that tradition of reading an antithesis ex negativo you might find Joseph Tendler (: "Opponents of the Annales School", Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke, 2013.) a nice recent writeup for your needs. This is more postively complemented with a slightly olde Peter Burke: "The French Historical Revolution: Annales School, 1929-1989", Polity Press, 1990.

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