Marc Bloch

Marc Bloch , 1886-1944, French historian and an authority on medieval feudalism. He taught at the Univ. of Strasbourg from 1919, became professor at the Sorbonne in 1936, and was cofounder of the journal Annales. Bloch did much to promote the study of economic history. As a Jew, he was subject to German restrictions during World War II. He joined the French Resistance in Lyon in 1942, helping to publish the newspaper Franc-Tireur, a name adopted by the Resistance forces in the region. His activities led to his execution by the Germans. His Strange Defeat (tr. 1949) describes wartime France. Among Bloch's major works are The Historian's Craft (tr. 1953) and French Rural History (tr. 1966). His Feudal Society (tr. 1961) is a brilliant synthesis of the subject.

Bloch, Marc (1886–1944) A distinguished French medieval historian, co-founder of the prominent Annales School, and therefore important influence on the historical sociology of such work as the world-systems theory of Immanuel Wallerstein. Bloch was an enthusiast of ‘totalizing’ approaches which emphasized the underlying movements in whole societies rather than either the activities of particular individuals or the chronology of specific events. His major works were French Rural History: An Essay on its Basic Characteristics (1931) and Feudal Society (1939–40). His comparative (and as he saw it scientific) approach to history, and his enthusiasm for the use of as wide a variety of data-sources as possible, is evident in his text on The Historian's Craft (1949). See also FEUDALISM.