Marc Bloch: A Life in History (Canto original series) [Paperback]

Carole Fink (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521406714 | ISBN-13: 978-0521406710 | Publication Date: June 28, 1991

This is the first biography of Marc Bloch (1886-1944), historian, soldier in both world wars, and leader of the Resistance, who was captured, tortured, and died a heroic death. Based largely on Bloch's private letters, diaries and papers, as well as on other unpublished documents, it traces the remarkable life of this French-Jewish patriot under the Third Republic. As an historian, Bloch is perhaps best known for The Historian's Craft, an inspiring set of meditations on his life's work, and as co-founder of the now legendary journal Annales, which gave rise to a major school of historical writing. Profoundly influenced by the dark events that shaped his era - world wars, anti-semitism, and totalitarianism - Bloch has become something of an intellectual hero of our century, his life an epitome of the endeavour to uphold, in the face of such events, the spirit of unfettered critical enquiry.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This first full-scale biography of Marc Bloch (1866-1944), French historian and Resistance martyr, is a moving, exemplary analysis of the intellectual as man of action. An assimilated Alsatian Jew deeply affected in his youth by the Dreyfus Affair, Bloch joined the Resistance in late 1942 or early '43, driven by ardent patriotism, identification with his Jewish roots and a conception of France as champion of liberty. His capture and murder by the Gestapo was a significant loss to modern scholarship, although his influence lives on in Annales , a journal he co-founded with Lucien Febvre. Fink, professor at the University of North Carolina, sheds light on Bloch's close brush with death in WW I, his stormy disputes with Febvre and his desperate efforts to save his family from the Nazis. She limns an independent thinker opposed to all doctrines, a medievalist who understood Hitler's use of rituals, a man of conviction who risked his life for his beliefs, an unmasker of popularly held prejudices. Photos.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Drawing on Bloch's unpublished correspondence and notes, Fink has written the first full intellectual and political biography of the brilliant scholar who co-founded the Annales, this century's most influential and controversial historical journal. Bloch pioneered in the writing of the "new" social and economic history and the history of mentalities; his best works (e.g., French Rural History, Feudal Society ) merit reading today. A Frenchman and a Jew, Bloch was proud of his family's history and of the decorations he had received in two wars. He moved reluctantly into opposition to the Vichy collaborators in 1944. He became a leader of the Resistance in Lyons, where he was arrested by the Germans, tortured, and executed only months before France's liberation. A work of painstaking scholarship, this is, equally, the story of a true hero. Highly recommended.
- David Keymer, SUNY Coll. of Technology, Utica
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 391 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (June 28, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521406714
• ISBN-13: 978-0521406710
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,279,041 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.