The recent appearance of a Brasilian translation of Fernand Braudel's Civi/isation matérielle et capita/isme is a good opportunity to reexamine some aspects of this seminal book and to seek to bound its central object. Special attention is called to the importance assigned by Braudel to some theoretical issues, under the aegis of "material civilization", mainly his concept of historical time and his effort to unify the social sciences.
Femand Braudel; Historical time; Material civilization