History as a Cultural Process in the Methodology of the Annales' "New Historical Science"

The purpose of the article is to characterise history as a cultural process, relying on the historiography of the Annales school and periodicals that continue the ideas of the Annalist historians. The research methodology is related to the use of an interdisciplinary approach in cultural studies in combination with the systematic method as a key research methodology, and the following research methods are also used: deductive and inductive, dialectical, as well as abstraction, and generalisation. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the consideration of the “new historical science” or “new intellectual history” of the Annales school as a factor that influenced the development of cultural studies. Conclusions. The article describes the Annales school and provides an analysis of its role in the development of the historiographic trend in cultural research. In particular, the paper distinguishes between historiography and history. The former is based on the study of the historical literature of a particular subject and is synonymous with historical literature, and the latter appears both as a science of the past and as a set of facts of the past. The Annales school is considered a breakthrough in the field of historiography and history. It was a reaction to the crisis that gripped the humanities in the 19th century. The Annales school is associated with the concept of “new history”: a total, comprehensive, problematic, and human-centred history, immersed in everyday life. Traditionally, there are four generations of the Annales school: the first generation includes M. Bloch and L. Febvre, the second — F. Braudel and E. Labrousse, the third — G. Duby, J. Le Goff, P. Aries, and E. Le Roy Ladurie, finally, the fourth — B. Lepetit, J. Revel and J. C. Schmitt.