Fernand Braudel

(1902 - 1985)

Captured by German troops in 1940, the Lorraine-born Fernand Braudel spent five years as a prisoner of war, passing the time by writing what would become his two-volume book The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II largely from memory, without access to sources. After his 1945 release, he was awarded a doctorate on its merits; he became a professor at the Collège de France and the editor of the influential history journal Annales.