In this classic work, distinguished French economic historian, Marc Bloch, discusses the techniques of historical observation, analysis, and criticism, and the reestablishment of historical causation in assessing events. What is the value of history? What is the use of history? How do scholars attempt to unpack it and make connections in a responsible manner?    While the topics of historiography and historical methodology have become increasingly popular, Bloch remains an authority. He argues that history is a whole; no period and no topic can be understood except in relation to other periods and topics. And what is unique about Bloch is that he puts his theories into practice; for example, calling upon both his experience serving in WWI as well as his many years spent in peaceful study and reflection. He also argues that written records are not enough; a historian must draw upon maps, place-names, ancient tools, aerial surveys, folklore, and everything that is available.    This is a work that argues constantly for a wider, more human history. For a history that describes how and why people live and work together. There is a living, breathing connection between the past and the present and it is the historian’s responsibility to do it justice.

Historians Craft

Education & Teaching

BLOCH, Marc

Schools & Teaching

McGraw=Hill

<p>"a hungarian expedition has penetrated as far as the borders of Germany"</p>

Feudal Society

History

University of Chicago Press

Marc Bloch wrote Strange Defeat during the three months following the fall of France, after he returned home from military service. In the midst of his anguish, he nevertheless "brought to his study of the crisis all the critical faculty and all the penetrating analysis of a first-rate historian" (Christian Science Monitor). Bloch takes a close look at the military failures he witnessed, examining why France was unable to respond to attack quickly and effectively. He gives a personal account of the battle of France, followed by a biting analysis of the generation between the wars. His harsh conclusion is that the immediate cause of the disaster was the utter incompetence of the High Command, but his analysis ranges broadly, appraising all the factors, social as well as military, which since 1870 had undermined French national solidarity."Much has been, and will be, written in explanation of the defeat of France in 1940, but it seems unlikely that the truth of the matter will ever be more accurately and more vividly presented than in this statement of evidence." P. J. Philip, New York Times Book Review "The most wisdom-packed commentary on the problem set [before] all intelligent and patriotic Frenchmen by the events of 1940." D. W. Brogan, Spectator

Strange Defeat: A Statement of Evidence Written in 1940

Military

Hippocrene Books

<p><strong>A renowned historian and Resistance fighter ― later executed by the Nazis ― analyzes at first hand why France fell in 1940.</strong></p> Marc Bloch wrote Strange Defeat during the three months following the fall of France, after he returned home from military service. In the midst of his anguish, he nevertheless "brought to his study of the crisis all the critical faculty and all the penetrating analysis of a first-rate historian" (Christian Science Monitor). Bloch takes a close look at the military failures he witnessed, examining why France was unable to respond to attack quickly and effectively. He gives a personal account of the battle of France, followed by a biting analysis of the generation between the wars. His harsh conclusion is that the immediate cause of the disaster was the utter incompetence of the High Command, but his analysis ranges broadly, appraising all the factors, social as well as military, which since 1870 had undermined French national solidarity. "Much has been, and will be, written in explanation of the defeat of France in 1940, but it seems unlikely that the truth of the matter will ever be more accurately and more vividly presented than in this statement of evidence." ― P. J. Philip, New York Times Book Review "The most wisdom-packed commentary on the problem set [before] all intelligent and patriotic Frenchmen by the events of 1940." ― D. W. Brogan, Spectator

Strange Defeat

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

W.W.Norton&Company

Feudal Society is the masterpiece of one of the greatest historians of the century. Marc Bloch's supreme achievement was to recreate the vivid and complex world of Western Europe from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries. For Bloch history was a living organism, and to write of it was an endless process of creative evolution and of growing understanding. The author treats feudalism as a vitalising force in European society. He surveys the social and economic conditions in which feudalism developed; he sees the structures of kinship which underlay the formal relationships of vassal and overlord. For Bloch these relationships are mutual as much as coercive, the product of a dangerous and uncertain world. His insights into the lives of the nobility and the clergy and his deep understanding of the processes at work in medieval Europe, are profound and memorable.

Feudal Society: Vol 1: The Growth and Ties of Dependence

Europe

Routledge

Feudal Society: Vol 2: Social Classes and Political Organisation

Feudal Society (Routledge Classics)

<p>Marc Bloch said that his goal in writing <i>Feudal Society</i> was to go beyond the technical study a medievalist would typically write and ‘dismantle a social structure.’ In this outstanding and monumental work, which has introduced generations of students and historians to the feudal period, Bloch treats feudalism as living, breathing force in Western Europe from the ninth to the thirteenth century. At its heart lies a magisterial account of relations of lord and vassal, and the origins of the nature of the fief, brought to life through compelling accounts of the nobility, knighthood and chivalry, family relations, political and legal institutions, and the church. For Bloch history was a process of constant movement and evolution and he describes throughout the slow process by which feudal societies turned into what would become nation states. A tour de force of historical writing, <i>Feudal Society</i> is essential reading for anyone interested in both Western Europe’s past and present.</p> <p>With a new foreword by Geoffrey Koziol</p>

Americas

<p>From the Preface by Lucien Febvre: MARC BLOCH'S Caracteres originaux de l'histoire ruralefranfaise, which was originally published at Oslo in 1931 and appeared simultaneously at Paris under the imprint Belles Lettres, has long been out of print. As he told me on more than one occasion, he had every intention of bringing out another edition. In Marc Bloch's own mind this was not simply a matter of reissuing the original text. He knew, none better, that time stops for no historian, that every good piece of historical writing needs to be rewritten after twenty years: otherwise the writer has failed in his objective, failed to goad others into testing his foundations and improving on his rasher hypotheses by subjecting them to greater precision. Marc Bloch was not given time to refashion his great book as he would have wished. One wonders whether he would in fact ever have brought himself to do it. I have the impression that the prospect of this somewhat dreary and certainly difficult task (however one may try to avoid it, revision of an earlier work is always hampered by the original design, which offers few easy loopholes for escape) held less appeal than the excitement of conceiving and executing an entirely new book. However this may be, our friend has carried this secret, with so many others, to his grave. The fact remains that one of our historical classics, now more than twenty years old, is due for republication and is here presented to the reader.</p>

French Rural History: An Essay on Its Basic Characteristics

University of California Press

Slavery and Serfdom in the Middle Ages: Selected Essays

<p><div>Marc Bloch was one of the founders of social history, if by that is meant the history of social organization and relations to contrast to the more conventional histories of political elites and diplomatic relations. His great monographs in medieval history are well known, but his original articles have been difficult to obtain.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>The present collection of essays explores the dimensions of servitude in medieval Europe. The typical political relations of that era were those of feudalism--the hierarchical relations of juridically free men. The feudal superstructure was based on a foundation of unfree masses composed of people of differing degrees of servility. In these articles Marc Bloch focussed on the heterogeneous world of slaves and serfs, concertrating particularly on the causes for its growth in the Carolingian period and its decline in the thirteenth century.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1975.</div></p>

Beer, William R.

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Books by BLOCH, Marc

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by BLOCH, Marc. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Historians Craft

Feudal Society

Strange Defeat: A Statement of Evidence Written in 1940

Strange Defeat

Feudal Society: Vol 1: The Growth and Ties of Dependence

Feudal Society: Vol 2: Social Classes and Political Organisation

Feudal Society (Routledge Classics)

French Rural History: An Essay on Its Basic Characteristics

Slavery and Serfdom in the Middle Ages: Selected Essays

Slavery and Serfdom in the Middle Ages: Selected Essays