布罗代尔是法国年鉴历史学派的第二台柱。1976年，他应美国霍普金斯大学邀请，对资本主义再作反思，集成本书。在书中，他对资本主义怎样和为什么在西欧萌芽、发展，商业资本与工业资本的关系，各地区之间的横向联系对资本主义的作用等等重大问题 ，作了简明扼要的论述。

本书是法国年鉴学派第二代代表人物、集大成者费尔南.布罗代尔的成名作和扛鼎之作，曾被译成十几种文字。本书从总体历史的思想出发，把16世纪后半期即西班牙国王菲利普在位时期的地中海世界作为一个整体加以考察，首先以大量的篇幅讨论了地中海的自然地理状况，进而探讨了该地区的经济社会状况和文化生活，最后才涉及到16世纪后期该地区的政治史。作者在广泛地运用历史学、地理学、社会学、政治学、民族学和经济学等学科研究方法的基础上，把平凡的日常生活与伟大的历史潮流，把微观与宏观有机地结合起来，立体再现了所述时代地中海及相关地区人类的全貌……

《15至18世纪的物质文明、经济和资本主义》分为“日常生活的结构”、“形形色色的交换”和“世界的时间”三卷。分别描述了15至18世纪世界范围内的人口、粮食、食品、能源、货币、城市等；分析了交易的根据、市场、生产、资本主义组织、社会各统治集团；叙述了先后控制世界经济的国家和地区的国内外市场及经济特点，最后以英国工业革命结束。

"In this concise book... Braudel summarizes the broad themes of his three-volume Civilisation materielle et capitalisme, 1400-1800 and offers his reflections on the historian's craft and on the nature of the historical imagination... Taken as a whole, the book is provocative and stimulating. On occasion, it rises to revelation when two or three sentences of compressed but brilliant prose force us to reconsider the events of an entire century or the history of a continent." -- American Historical Review.

A translation of Fernand Braudel's "Ecrits sur l'histoire", published in 1969. The main themes of the work are: the importance of a "rapprochement" between history and the social sciences; the inseparability of study of past and present; the dubious value of the narrative techniques; and the liberating effect of approaching the human past with eyes firmly fixed upon the "longue duree".

By examining in detail the material life of pre-industrial people around the world, Fernand Braudel significantly changed the way historians view their subject. Volume I describes food and drink, dress and housing, demography and family structure, energy and technology, money and credit, and the growth of towns.

Volume III investigates what Braudel terms "world-economies" - the economic dominance of a particular city at different periods of history, from Venice to Amsterdam, London, New York.