Braudel
Sir: Paul Johnson is perfectly right about the overestimation of Braudel (`The media', 7 December). When his book came out in England, I pointed out that he had little knowledge of the Elizabethan penetration of the Mediterranean, the formation of the Levant Company, the part played by English commerce and growing naval power there. Braudel did not seem to know of English sources — did he know the language? — or English historical work on the subject.
To what was the chorus of applause with which his work was greeted due? It occur- red to me that it gave our academics an alibi: they could recognise in a foreigner a superior more easily than they could work by English historians who were quite as good, if not better.
A. L. Rowse
Trenarren House, St Austell, Cornwall
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