It wd be beneath his dignity--but the reader should be in no doubt. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Select the department you want to search in, IMPORTANT FOR UNDERSTANDING CONTEMPORARY FATEFUL PREDICAMENTS, Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2018. Welcome back. Eyewitness Account of the French Defeat in WWII, Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2011. Indeed, without regret or melancholy, there seems to have been an absolute faith in the eventual disappearance of the old, pre-popular front, pre-war French order, as much as of French political and military men, as of pre-war French bourgeoisie. Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2012. I know the book was written under difficult circumstances and the author was killed before he could do a review and possible reorganization. Penned in what the author, Marc Bloch, confessed was “a white heat of rage,” the resulting book, L’Étrange défaite, or Strange Defeat, remains among the most incisive analyses of … Even so it was a very close thing and this book reveals just how close a victory for the Germans it was. He wrote the book when he returned to his University teaching post soon after France surrendered. A hard read but it is well detailed and is written by an observant and aware author. Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2020. Buy Strange Defeat: A Statement of Evidence Written in 1940 New Ed by Bloch, Marc (ISBN: 9780393319118) from Amazon's Book Store. Exceptional and accurate analysis of French defeat in WWII, Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2009. He was unique in every way. Bloch served in the French army in both World War I and the opening of World War II so he was experienced in the workings of the army by the time he wrote the book in 1940. Start by marking “Strange Defeat” as Want to Read: Error rating book. Strange Defeat (French: L'Étrange Défaite) is a book written in the summer of 1940 by French historian Marc Bloch.The book was published in 1946; in the meanwhile, Bloch had been tortured and executed by the Gestapo in June 1944 for his participation in the French resistance.An English translation was published by W. W. Norton in 1968. Perhaps it would have been ironically interesting, had he lived, to learn what he would have made of Indochine, Algerie, Gaullism and the heady days of 1968. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. Those would be more on the just 3-star level. Does there exist an audio production of this book for a blind friend, please? There are no discussion topics on this book yet. For that matter, a lot of his values really resonate today.... A shattering assessment of why the French were so easily defeated in 1940, written in the bleak moment immediately after the capitulation: We usually see alternative histories where the Nazis do better then they did in real life. He was assigned to the "Northern Front", and was among those encircled by the Germans in their May 1940 offensive, and was evacuated at Dunkirk. Marc Bloch wrote Strange Defeat during the three months following the fall of France, after he returned home from military service. Book Review: Strange Defeat by Marc Bloch | Mboten List 2: March Bloch and the Strange Defeat 4. academics (several of whom had served in the Great War). Disabling it will result in some disabled or missing features. He gives an insider's viewpoint and is cynically. There may also have been a defeatist attitude, partly based on a memory of terrible losses during World War I. The author went on to be a major figure in the French Resistance and was shot for his. In this soul-searching little volume, written shortly after the collapse of France in 1940, Bloch seeks the underlying causes for the weaknesses of the French state which led to that calamity. Bloch comes to a melancholic but inherently optimistic conclusion: the future of France will be built not by men of his generation, but by a new breed. The fact that Bloch was executed by the Gestapo as a leader of the French resistance, a fate that he knew was comingy, and that France was liberated after fighting on under the leadership of De Gaul, a development which he hoped for, add to the poignancy of this book as a testament aiming at enlightening the next generation and calling on it to do better. 5.0 out of 5 stars IMPORTANT FOR UNDERSTANDING CONTEMPORARY FATEFUL PREDICAMENTS. The analysis in its third section could equally apply to events from 2016 onwards. His testament was one that placed loyalty to his country rather than to Zionism. This small book of three parts was written by Marc Bloch immediately after the capitulation of France to Nazi Germany on June 22, 1940. You can still see all customer reviews for the product. Bloch does touch on briefly the spiritual malaise and these points, but they merit greater explanation than the leadershi. He was captured and shot by the Gestapo during the German occupation of France for his work in the French Resistance. Reading this hook is to be humbled by a patriot of France. A dispirited French Army, lacking confidence in itself and its leaders, was rapidly overwhelmed by the German Army, honed to a fine edge after its easy victory in Poland. Bloch does touch on briefly the spiritual malaise and these points, but they merit greater explanation than the leadership failures and sclerotic thinking he observed and catalogued in the army. Marc Bloch wrote Strange Defeat during the three months following the fall of France, after he returned home from military service. This short, very well written book is the judgement of a prominent French historian on how France came to be so swiftly defeated in World War Two, not as a matter of tactics and movements on maps, but also in how the seeds of defeat lay in the state of the nation. A brief account of hell, written from hell, by a man who (as we know with hindsight) was bound for hell on earth at the hands of the Gestapo. It takes a peculiar sort of courage to write the eye-witness history not only of a defeat, but of the comprehensive collapse of the country one loves, at the hands of an enemy one hates and despises from the depths of one's soul. His patriotism being without question, his perspective on the faults in the French General Staff and its' prosecution of the war and the general public's attitude toward defeat are enlightening. This is real though, and our author a genuine hero. Prime members enjoy FREE Delivery and exclusive access to music, movies, TV shows, original audio series, and Kindle books. Although I graduated from West Point and studied military history both as part of my profession and also as an avocation, I could never really comprehend how the Germans pulled off the defeat of France, from a purely military and logistical standpoint. After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. Top subscription boxes – right to your door, © 1996-2020, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Bloch transferred to Montpellier University in the winter 1941 (for the warmer climate since his wife was in frail health). A police dragnet spread out as the killers veered through the city before they escaped in the direction of Reims. There is a dry-eyed innocence in the reporting that makes the shattering news it conveys more momentous than anything I have read in more scholarly, more documented, chronicles of the period which overwhelm citizen experience with broader perspectives. What seems to have been missing was clear, innovative thinking. Years ago I read somewhere that it is beneficial to read books in topical clusters, i.e., that are somehow connected to one another. I just completed my World War 2 cluster with “Strange Defeat”, Marc Bloch’s analysis of why it was so easy for Nazi Germany to conqueror France. Much of the analysis is about Fench military politics in the period before the war and why the outcome was pre-ordained by the decisions the French made. True to the historian’s craft, his writing is passionate but never impulsive, his judgments piercing but never unfair; with the exception of mostly infrequent, minor generalisations about different groups of people/organisations (which I nevertheless believe were made in good faith) e.g. In "Strange Victory", French Army Captain Marc Bloch, gives a first-hand account of the French defeat in May-June 1940, and discusses why and how the French were defeated. This page works best with JavaScript. He was captu. In reading it, I found that it was also a war memoir with absurdist themes. Accessible and concise, the book offers a wide-ranging synthesis of key themes and events. The short version is that the Germans had the best fighter aircraft force in the world in 1940, and decent tanks (thoug. I wonder if Strange Defeat is required reading in the army staff colleges of the world--not so much ma, This is a hell of a book. Everyone should read this. Was defeat really so strange? He was a world-renowned medieval scholar, so his mind was nuanced and perceptive, his approach unsentimental and objective; he brings the full intellectual rigor of his training and experience to extract all possible social, historical, and moral truth from the seemingly mundane. But Chapter 3, where he covers their shortcomings as a people in recognizing the German threat and in being prepared to adequately deal with it, that is worth the time to read for sure. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Strange Defeat: A Statement of Evidence Written in 1940 at Amazon.com. Great insight into the unpreparedness of the French army during the German invasion. This is not to minimize others' works, nor to regard M. Bloch as a "minimalist": au contraire. For three days the sirens never stopped in Paris. A book about France’s defeat in World War II has taken on a curious resonance as the country gazes across the border at Germany and asks why it has weathered the pandemic better. Strange Victory: Hitler's Conquest of France Ernest R. May Review by Roger Bishop. Don't miss The Collapse of the Third Republic by Shirer if you're really into the subject matter of course; this is a smaller contribution than Shirer's but it is invaluable. A renowned historian and Resistance fighter — later executed by the Nazis — analyzes at first hand why France fell in 1940.Marc Bloch wrote Strange Defeat during... Free shipping over $10. Its impact is so profound is that even inspired at least one book title, "Strange Victory," by Ernest May. He's a fascinating person as he later fought in the French Resistance and I wish he had survived (he was shot by the Gestapo in 1944) so that we could see if his opinion had changed with time. But the fact is that there is a great deal of repetition and it is hard to draw our the relevant lessons. He gives an insider's viewpoint and is cynically funny, which I didn't expect. Fyi, Marc Bloch, who worked in the Resistance after the debacle of 1940 was later killed by the Gestapo. I just completed my World War 2 cluster with “Strange Defeat”, Marc Bloch’s analysis of why it was so easy for Nazi Germany to conqueror France. At the time he was a renowned Medieval history professor who took up his reserve status in the French Army at the age of 52 only to see the arrogance, ineptitude and disgrace of the self-serving leadership of the French Army and government under Jenri Phillippe Petan. Indispensible for Understanding 20th Century France, Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2006. I know the book was written under difficult circumstances and the author was killed before he could do a review and possible reorganization. As both an avid reader of WWII history and early 20th century European history I find Marc Bloch's analysis of the French defeat not only insightful but his first hand accounts amazingly accurate. Verified Purchase. i highly recommend the Audible copy of Case Red by Robert Forczyk, which mentions this book in detail. The sad story and De Profundis of how and why every segment of society gave in when the Germans came. Looking ahead to the present day, the book also examines how the French establishment and public have coped with the legacy of Vichy, and explains why the occupation is still ever present in … Book of the day Fiction Luckenbooth by Jenni Fagan review – brilliantly strange Set across nine decades in an Edinburgh tenement, this haunted panorama is a dazzling outsider history I read Bloch as a medieval historian back in graduate school. We’d love your help. His thoughts are still so pertinent for today. Indeed the many treasures come in seemingly casual descriptions of mundane events like millions of naked, flickering, low-wattage light-bulbs adumbrating the tragedy of national collapse. What seems to have been missing was clear, innovative thinking. Marc Bloch wrote Strange Defeat during the three months following the fall of France, after he returned home from military service. Strange Defeat: a statement of evidence written in 1940 Marc Bloch A renowned historian and Resistance fighter — later executed by the Nazis — analyzes at first hand why France fell in 1940.Marc Bloch wrote Strange Defeat during the three months following the fall of France, after he returned home from military service. They began on the morning of January 7 right after two French Muslim terrorists infiltrated the offices of Charlie Hebdo in the Marais and killed twelve people. A poignant ...memoir, if that word can be used to describe this diagnosis that is oddly resonant in some ways, while failing to connect in others. Marc Bloch wrote Strange Defeat during the three months following the fall of France, after he returned home from military service. An English translation was published by W. W. Norton in 1968. And because of the analytic tone, and because he writes to criticize his own country's faults rather than to demonize the invaders, it may perhaps be accessible in a way that other treatments of history are not. This is his first-order diagnosis of why the French military was so utterly unprepared for the war of movement th. Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2020. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. I feel like this works better as a primary source than as a objective take on the French defeat. 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 was a founder of the Annales School, best known for his pioneering studies French Rural History and Feudal Society and his posthumously-published unfinished meditation on the writing of history, The Historian's Craft. Bloc is a brilliant writer with good historical insight. There were plenty of tanks and planes produced. He lived for years under the occupation and was active in the underground (his life ended by Nazi firing squad). 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). But the fact is that there is a great deal of repetition and it is hard to draw our the relevant lessons. My main reason for finding and reading this book is that it often shows up in citations and direct quotations in other histories on the fall of France in 1940. A truly fascinating account of the fall of France in 1940 by an extraordinary man - historian, WW1 vet, father of six, army officer in WW2 and fighter in the Resistance. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published After evacuation he was returned to France in the Normandy area, and when the Germans reached his area, rather than surrender, he slipped away and returned home to write this history in 1940. Conventional thinking has focused on three reasons. So often, Godwin's law or the persistent apologists for Communism hinder us from learning badly needed lessons from the tulmutuous twentieth century. Mark Bloch saved the best of his self-written biography until the last chapter. This is one of the books that helped me understand. Block was an eminent French historian who served in the First World War; volunteered for the second despite being a middle- aged grandfather; and was executed by the Nazis in 1944 for his work with the resistance. He kept at his craft but rather than delving in ancient manuscripts he reported on what he observed around him of an army, indeed a state, in rapid collapse. As a proper historian, he gives the Germans credit where it is due -- despite his obvious historical antipathy towards them (he fought in the Great War). “No doubt they thought that by allowing themselves to become martyrs to their nerves they were giving proof of a fine stoicism, just as by living in a continual rush they produced in their own minds an illusion of activity.”, “Similarly, when it is not the past that we are studying, but some set of phenomena relating to a principle still active, we expect to be told whenever a new piece of evidence may emerge, in the light of which it is quite possible that the whole elaborate structure of our conclusions will have to be changed.”. I think it would have pleased him to have people read his words today, and learn from them while such cataclysmic results are still avoidable. In effect, he is telling what Jean Van Jean said in Les Miserables"--Who Am I? The Nazis had chucked that playbook away. by W. W. Norton Company. If so, what would Europe have looked like after Germany was decimated at the Maginot line? This is one of the books that helped me understand. By the second half of the book, I was highlighting passage after passage, wanting to post them to show the applicability of the lessons of the past to today. A renowned historian and Resistance fighter - later executed by the Nazis - analyzes at first hand why France fell in 1940. The author, a noted medieval historian, fought in both world wars and during the second was a Resistance leader, executed by the Nazis in 1944. First couple of chapters on the military failings of the French Army in facing the Germans in WWII is pretty standard fare - fighting the last war, overly bureaucratic, etc. The author went on to be a major figure in the French Resistance and was shot for his efforts. A very interesting and entertaining view of the French defeat by the Germans in 1940. I found this to be an excellent book about the surprising and earth-shattering defeat of France and Britain in May of 1940. This is a hell of a book. He did not need to assume leadership in a '"no-win" assignment in the French underground, but his commitment to liberating France exceeded that of obligations to his family of a devoted wife and seven children. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. One individual's (a historian and philosopher) history of the military fall of France - May-June, 1940. Other forces had developed field radios for troops and tanks. We are made by history.” So, this January, as we celebrate Martin Luther King... To see what your friends thought of this book. France: A Strange Defeat by Mark Lilla | The New York Review of Books 12/03/15 16:22 He wrote, Years ago I read somewhere that it is beneficial to read books in topical clusters, i.e., that are somehow connected to one another. when examining the Franco-British alliance’s shortcomings. Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2015. The main thesis of the book is that the French leadership failed to recognize that "the whole rhythm of modern warfare had changed its tempo." I mean, being written by a resistance fighter while the war was active, obviously it's a lot less scientific than other examinations of the war, but Bloch can write. This book was written after the defeat and before he joined the Resistance (in whose service he was captured, tortured and killed by the Gestapo). The macro waves drowning the country are inferred from his micro observations. This is a short book and is an extraordinary read - particularly in these times. A very interesting and entertaining view of the French defeat by the Germans in 1940. While some forces fought bravely, others retreated before contact with the enemy. But Chapter 3, where he covers their shortcomings as a people in recognizing the German threat and in being prepared to adequately deal with it, that is worth the time to read for sure. Bloch is an historian who fought in WWI and WWII and writes this in reflection on France's qui. Bloch is an historian who fought in WWI and WWII and writes this in reflection on France's quick fall to Germany in 1940 as he is fighting in the resistance where he will eventually be executed by the occupying Germans. Some of his explanations for France’s collapse may ( or may not) offer lessons for us today. The tone for this school of thought was certainly set by the great French medievalist … I found this book very helpful in understanding the Fall of France in 1940. I know the book was written under difficult circumstances and the author was killed before he could do a review and possible reorganization. July 17th 1999 Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2015. The French were still relying on runners and carrier pigeons. Here are the main ones that I recall: The French government was dysfunctional; defense funds were miss- spent on construction of a defensive wall (i.e., the Maginot line which the Nazis circumvented) instead of on tanks and planes; the French Army was commanded by old men (and younger officers trained by them) who thought the new War would be exactly like the last one and adopted their strategy and tactics accordingly, ignoring the blitzkrieg tactics and capabilities Germany displayed in its invasion of Poland. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. Bloch served in the French army in both World War I and the opening of World War II so he was experienced in the workings of the army by the time he wrote the book in 1940. 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). An engaging, thoroughly researched account of Nazi Germany’s surprising, rapid defeat of French and Allied forces in the spring of 1940. This is his first-order diagnosis of why the French military was so utterly unprepared for the war of movement that unfolded in the May 1940, despite having seen the adequate warnings of what it could look like in Poland in September 1939. 54 reviews. His original book was hastily written following the French loss. A fascinating text. But I expect the average reader will not be interested in the subject matter and everyone will struggle a bit with Bloch's writing style (or the English translation thereof) . I know the book was written under difficult circumstances and the author was killed before he could do a review and possible reorganization. Marc Bloch wrote Strange Defeat during the three months following the fall of France, after he returned home from military service. However, his experience in both wars against Germany give his perspective you'll rarely find anywhere else in personal histories. I found this book very helpful in understanding the Fall of France in 1940. What I failed to grasp then was that he was also a Mahatma, "great-souled one". How ironic this observation in the midst of the overwhelming propaganda for Petain's phony reactionary, bullying National Revolution and its relatively widespread support (at least in its early stages) in Occupied and Vichy France. A gem of a book about WWII by a great medievalist. Even in the most abject moments of defeat, I don't think Bloch ever wavered in the belief that the Germans would eventually have to go. He never let me forget that he was a Jew, but a Jew whose loyalty was always to France and the French Republic that opposed the Nazi conquest. Man, this book is hard to beat. Here he continued to teach for another 18 months before dismissal. Bloch seems a little too invested at throwing blame at the generals or the unions or many other targets. I love the analysis and reasoning but found the telling a little tedious and in too much detail. One of the best books I have ever read. As it was, and as Bloch makes clear, the campaign was fought, and lost, by men who were still fighting WW1. 2 Reviews. But the fact is that there is a great deal of repetition and it is hard to draw our the relevant lessons.