Of French-Alsatian Jewish descent, Bloch was born in Lyons, where his father taught ancient history.
He had move to Paris, passed the necessary examination, traveled widely and taught in various lycees before ‘four years of fighting idleness’ interrupted his studies in 1914; for his activities during World War I he was admitted to the Legion d’honneur and awarded a Croix de Guerre. After acquiring his doctorate in 1920, he taught his first in Strasbourg and from 1936 as professor of economics history in Paris.Bloch’s prodigious output, including probing reviews in the magazines Annales, which he co-founded with Lucien FEBVRE in 1929, was a remarkable as the width of his interest, both in history, particularly comparative history, and in neighboring discipline. His first book, Les Rois thaumaturgies (1924; translated as The Royal Touch, 1973); dealt with the healing attributes of kings.
Later works included his two volume work in feudal societies La Societe feodale (1935); translated as Feudal Society, 1961); L’Etrange Defaite (1940; translated as feudal Strange Defeat, 1949), and unforgettable essay on the fall of France, seen as a failure of character and of intelligence and unfinished notes on history (1942 – 43), published and providing perhaps the best introduction to the ‘craft of the historian’.
As brave in World War II as in World War I, Bloch joined the army then the Resistance. He was tortured and killed by the Germans.
Bloch, Marc (1886 – 1944)
