Marc Bloch

The Annales School was a major shift in historiography that moved away from purely political history toward studying long-term social and economic structures. Bloch co-founded the movement in 1929 when he and Lucien Febvre established the Annales d'histoire économique et sociale journal. Bloch championed 'history from below,' integrating geography, sociology, and psychology into historical research.

In The Royal Touch, published in 1924, Bloch explored the long-held belief in England and France that kings could cure scrofula, a skin disease, simply by touching the afflicted. He used this bizarre phenomenon to analyze the psychological power of monarchy and collective mentalities over centuries. It remains a foundational text in the history of mentalities.

Bloch wrote The Historian's Craft, a short, influential book based on his lectures about how historians should approach evidence and time. He wrote it while in hiding from the Nazis during World War II. The book was tragically left unfinished because Bloch was captured and executed by the Gestapo in 1944.

Yes, despite being nearly 60 years old when World War II broke out, Bloch actively joined the French Resistance. He served as a courier and helped coordinate the underground movement in Lyon. He was arrested by the Gestapo in March 1944 and was subsequently executed by a firing squad in June of that year.