Multiple Timescales in History: Clashing Concerns?

Inspired by the great twentieth-century French scholar Fernand Braudel, historians work with different timescales—long-, medium-, and short terms—and especially investigations on the long- and short terms have surged in recent decades. While these approaches should complement one another, they appear to clash, however. In the specific case of the ancient history of the Middle East, scholars prefer the short-term approach, because, in the end, they look for explanation in human agency.