In recent years archaeologists appear to have rediscovered history. For many the Annaliste history of Fernand Braudel has proved especially attractive. In this paper it is argued that an overemphasis on the determinism of long-term structures, and the lack of a dialectical relationship between the longue duree and the history of events fundamentally flaws Braudel's enterprise. Drawing upon the work of sociologists and anthropologists like Anthony Giddens and Pierre Bourdieu, an alternative theoretical perspective is provided and applied to further our understanding of the formation of hilltop towns in central Italy during the early Middle Ages. It is argued that this perspective, with its emphasis on the social contruction of reality and the recursiveness of the relationship between structure and agency, is similar to that of a later generation of Annales scholars like Georges Duby and Jacques Le Goff. Annalisme is not rejected: le monde Braudellien is.