An incredible number of dice, always rolling, dominate and determine each individual existence: uncertainty, then, in the realm of individual history; but in that of collective history . . . simplicity and consistency. History is indeed ‘a poor little conjectural science’ when it selects individuals as its objects . . . but much more rational . . . but much more rational in its procedures and results, when it examines groups and repetitions. ~ Fernand Braudel