Memoirs of War, 1914–15

Historians can bear penetrating witness to the great events they experience firsthand. One who unquestionably did so was Marc Bloch, the eminent French scholar, author of the esteemed Feudal Society, and co-founder of the influential journal Annales, who documented the fall of France in his powerful and well-known World War II memoir, Strange Defeat. Bloch also left an unfinished account of his combat experience in World War I, Memoirs of War, 1914–15. In the Memoirs, which Bloch wrote in 1915 and 1916, he narrates his experience in the agonizing retreat from the Belgian border at the outset of the war, the Battle of Marne, and the establishment of trench warfare in the Argonne Forest. This tense, trenchant account contains poignant sketches of fellow soldiers, reflections on cowardice and bravery, and commentary on France’s conduct of the war. Memoirs of War, 1914–15 reveals not only the young Marc Bloch’s talents as a critical observer, but also the same courage and fierce patriotism that he was to demonstrate a quarter of a century later as a World War II officer and Resistance leader. This translation (first published in 1980, reissuing the new edition of 1988) is by Carole Fink, who has assembled vivid period photographs and documents to illustrate the text and has written an extended introduction in which she places Marc Bloch’s World War I experiences in context and analyzes the war’s impact on his future intellectual development.