"Braudel's last volume of The Identity of France - the last he lived to write, though not the last he had planned - has all the freshness, the play of mind, and the gout du terroir that are the special delights of his work. The multiplicity of his interest, the range of his knowledge, and the vigor with which he interrogates the past were evident in the great books, The Mediterranean and Civilization and Capitalism, of his prime."--Volume 2 Book Flap.