Strange Defeat: A Statement of Evidence Written in 1940

Marc Leopold Benjamin Bloch

ISBN 10: 039300371X / ISBN 13: 9780393003710

Published by W W Norton & Co Inc, 1968

About this Item

Gently used with minimal wear on the corners and cover. A few pages may contain light highlighting or writing, but the text remains fully legible. Dust jacket may be missing, and supplemental materials like CDs or codes may not be included. May be ex-library with library markings. Ships promptly!

Seller Inventory # DBV.039300371X.G

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Strange Defeat: A Statement of Evidence Written in 1940
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc
• Publication Date: 1968
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 039300371X
• ISBN 13: 9780393003710
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: good

About this title

Synopsis

Marc Bloch was a world-renowned medieval historian who was read and valued by scholars far beyond the Sorbonne, of which he was a distinguished member. He fought in both World Wars, and in 1942, when fifty, became active in the French Resistance. Two years later he was caught by the Germans, tortured, and executed.

This book, left in draft, is a moving document and a penetrating analysis of the disaster he witnessed at first hand. Though written early in the Occupation, it is free from bitterness and recrimination, and its detailed criticism of the French disaster is conducted throughout with detachment and intellectual integrity. As a study throwing light on one of the great crises of Western civilization, it is a classic, for it brings in evidence not gossip and personal malice but a considered appraisal of all the factors, social as well as military, which since 1870 had undermined French national solidarity.

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 conclusion is that the immediate cause of the disaster was the utter incompetence of the High Command, but his analysis ranges broadly.

Written with the clarity and logic which distinguish the best French prose, Strange Defeat is a fitting memorial to a man of noble ideas, heroic purpose, and searching intellect.

About the Author

Marc Bloch was a French historian who cofounded the Annales School of French social history. He was captured and shot by the Gestapo in 1944 for his work with the French Resistance.