Marc Bloch
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Marc Léopold Benjamin Bloch (July 6, 1886 – June 16, 1944) was a French historian of medieval France in the period between the First and Second World Wars, and a founder of the Annales School. Bloch was shot by the Gestapo during the German occupation of France for his work in the French Resistance.
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[edit] Biography
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 in the infantry in World War I and won 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. A part of the University of Strasbourg is now named after him (see Marc Bloch University).
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 anthropolgy.
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.
Bloch's last book, Strange Defeat (published posthumously), was a brief assessment of the rapid failure of the French army to repel the German Blitzkrieg in 1940. Bloch was captured, tortured, and finally shot by the Gestapo during the German occupation of France for his work in the French Resistance and for his Jewish ancestry.
Bloch's focus on the longue durée and his emphasis upon structures underlying events led to accusations of a denial of human agency and a marginalization of political history. Towards the end of his life, having witnessed the invasion of France by Nazi Germany, Bloch expressed reservations along these lines, 'We (historians) preferred to lock ourselves in fear haunted tranquility of our studies. Most of us can say we were good workers, is it also true to say we were good citizens?' (Strange Defeat). His involvement with the French resistance seems to suggest that he did maintain faith in the ability of the individual to alter the tide of history. Ironically, his execution by the Gestapo made him a martyr for the very thing which much of his work was criticized for negating, agency of the individual.
[edit] 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
- Strange Defeat; a Statement of Evidence Written in 1940 (London: Oxford University Press, 1949) Original French text: [1]
- The Historian's Craft, Tr. Peter Putnam, (New York: Vintage Book, 1953) Original French text: [2]
[edit] References
- Bloch, Marc. The royal touch: sacred monarchy and scrofula in England and France
- Carole Fink, Marc Bloch: A Life in History (Cambridge University Press, 1989) ISBN 0-521-40671-4
- H. Stuart Hughes, The Obstructed Path: French Social Thought in the Years of Desperation, 1930-1960 (1968)
- Joseph Lambie, ed., Architects and Craftsmen in History (1956)
[edit] External links
- Centre Marc Bloch (French)
- Université Marc Bloch (English)
- l'Association Marc Bloch (French)
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