Sentence:  Besides showing no inclination , apparently , to absent himself from his native region even for short periods , and in addition writing a shelf of books set in the region , he has handled in those books an astonishingly complete list of matters which have been important in the South during the past hundred <WSD>years</WSD> . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  a period of time containing 365 (or 366) days