Family
Marc Bloch was born in Lyon on 6 July 1886, one of two children to Gustave and Sarah Bloch, née Ebstein. Bloch's family were Alsatian Jews: secular, liberal and loyal to the

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Both Marc and Louis Bloch volunteered for service in the French Army. Although the Dreyfus Affair had soured Bloch's views of the French Army, he later wrote that his criticisms were only of the officers; he "had respect only for the men". Bloch was one of over 800 ÉNS

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Early career
The war was fundamental in re-arranging Bloch's approach to history, although he never acknowledged it as a turning point. In the years following the war, a disillusioned Bloch rejected the ideas and the traditions that had

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Bloch's first book was L'Ile de France, published in 1913. A small book, Lyon calls it "light, readable and far from trivial", and showing the influence

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Davies says Bloch was "no mean disputant" in historiographical debate, often reducing an opponent's argumentto its most basic weaknesses. His approach was a reaction against the prevailing ideas within French historiography of the day which, when he was

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Bloch was not a tall man, being 5 feet 5 inches (1.65 m) in height and an elegant dresser. Eugen Weber has described Bloch's handwriting as

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On 24 August 1939, at the age of 53, Bloch was mobilised for a third time, now as a fuel supply officer. He was responsible for the mobilisation of the French Army's massive motorised units. This involved him undertaking such a detailed assessment of the French fuel supply

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