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Marc Bloch
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Marc Léopold Benjamin Bloch (July 6, 1886 in Lyon – June 16, 1944 in Saint-Didier-de-Formans) was a French historian of medieval France, active in the period between the First and Second World Wars. Bloch was a founder of the Annales School. He was shot by the Gestapo during the German occupation of France for his work in the French Resistance.
in Lyon to a Jewish family, the son of the professor of ancient history Gustave Bloch, Marc studied at the Ecole Normale Supérieure and Foundation Thiers in Paris, then at Berlin and Leipzig.
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Marc Léopold Benjamin Bloch (July 6, 1886 in Lyon – June 16, 1944 in Saint-Didier-de-Formans) was a French historian of medieval France, active in the period between the First and Second World Wars. Bloch was a founder of the Annales School. He was shot by the Gestapo during the German occupation of France for his work in the French Resistance.
Biography
Youth and First World War
Born in Lyon to a Jewish family, the son of the professor of ancient history Gustave Bloch, Marc studied at the Ecole Normale Supérieure and Foundation Thiers in Paris, then at Berlin and Leipzig. He was an officer of infantry in World War I, rising to the rank of captain and being awarded the Légion d'honneur.
After the war, he went to the university at Strasbourg, then in 1936 succeeded Henri Hauser as professor of economic history at the Sorbonne.
Career
In 1924 he published one of his most famous works Les rois thaumaturges: étude sur le caractère surnaturel attribué à la puissance royale particulièrement en France et en Angleterre (sometimes translated in English as The magic-working kings or The royal touch: sacred monarchy and scrofula in England and France) in which he collected, described and studied the documents pertaining to the ancient tradition that the kings of the Middle Ages were able to cure the disease of scrofula simply by touching people suffering from it. This tradition has its roots in the magical role of kings in ancient societies. This work by Bloch had a great impact not only on the social history of Middle Ages but also on cultural anthropology.
In 1929, Bloch founded, with Lucien Febvre, the important journal Annales d'histoire économique et sociale (now called Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales) whose name came to be attached to an historical approach called the Annales School. Bloch's most important work centered on the study of feudalism.
Bloch has had lasting influence in the field of historiography through his unfinished manuscript The Historian's Craft, which he was working on when he was killed by the Nazis. Bloch's book and What is History? by Edward Carr are often considered two of the most important historiographical works of the 20th century.
Second World War
In 1939 France declared war on Germany after its invasion and occupation of Poland. As France mobilized its troops, Marc Bloch left his position at the Sorbonne and took up his reserve status as a captain in the French Army at the age of 52. He was encouraged at the time by colleagues both in France and abroad to leave the country. He said it was his personal obligation to stand for the moral imperative.
"I was born in France, I have drunk the waters of her culture. I have made her past my own. I breathe freely only in her climate, and I have done my best, with others, to defend her interests." - from The Strange Defeat
Bloch's book, Strange Defeat (published posthumously), assesses the rapid failure of the French army to repel the German Blitzkrieg in 1940 and his personal view of his French heritage and obligation to his Nation. Bloch was captured just before the landing of Allied forces in Normandy; he was imprisoned, tortured and eventually shot along with twenty-six others by the Gestapo for his participation in the French Resistance.
Legacy
- Bloch's focus on the longue durée and his emphasis upon structures underlying events led to misguided accusations of a denial of human agency and a marginalization of political history. In Strange Defeat he clearly states his view that individuals can change events and he castigates the French government's refusal to trust its own officers in the field of battle, thus leading to the surrender of France to the Nazis.
Works
- Feudal Society, Tr. L.A. Manyon, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961). ISBN 0-226-05979-0
- French Rural History, tr. Janet Sondheimer (Berkely: University of California, 1966). Translation of Les caractères originaux de l'histoire rurale française, 1931. ISBN 0-520-01660-2
- The royal touch: sacred monarchy and scrofula in England and France
- Strange Defeat; a Statement of Evidence Written in 1940 (London: Oxford University Press, 1949) Original French text:
- The Historian's Craft, Tr. Peter Putnam, (New York: Vintage Book, 1953) Original French text:
External links
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