Annals

Annals (Latin annālis, yearly from annus, a year) are a concise form of historical representation which record events chronologically, year by year. The Oxford English Dictionary defines annals as "a narrative of events written year by year". In The Content of Form: Narrative Discourse and Historical Representation, Hayden White discusses annals in contrast to chronicles and history, two other forms of historical representation. He claims that annals lack a "social center". A social center locates the list of events in time to a point of view, which would imply the moral importance of the events. In contrast to the chronicle, annals do not organize events by topics, such as the reigns of kings. Unlike history, the annal does not conclude and tie up all the loose ends, but simply terminates. The annalist leaves the recorded events unexplained and often one event has as equal weight as another. Furthermore, annalists represent events as happening to humankind, rather than human beings causing events.