He was a student of the Annales way of thought. Ladurie felt that for four hundred years, history stood still. Along with that, so did the growth of the people. He gave the term total history in his book called Paysans which was a study of a region's people, religion, weather, etc. in southern France. Ladurie stayed away from the study of what I call "mainstream history", meaning war, monarchy, exploration, etc. in favor of this study. He seems to put an vast importance on the region's climate over time. He was a true pioneer the way he was able to use his data to show the warming and cooling pattern of the region.
My question... though his way of documenting data was truly unique and unheard of during the time, was it helpful? What did studying the peasants prove in the long run?
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