The Historian and the Pantheon
Marc Bloch, the year of his death, 1944 Yesterday, 23 June 2026, Marc Bloch entered France's Pantheon, among the ranks of such luminaries as Victor Hugo, Voltaire, Emile Zola, andMarie Curie: the highest degree of honor that can be granted by a grateful nation. Marc Bloch, in First World War French uniform Born to a family of French Jewish intellectuals from Alsace, Bloch was early promised to a brilliant academic career. Yet that destiny became fatally entwined with that of heroism when he answered his country's call to arms in 1914. Earning the War Cross and Legion of Honor for selfless acts of service in the Great War, he also volunteered in 1939 to put his life on the line once more for his country, in spite of his 53 years and incapacitating chronic pain. In between times he had penned a seminal work of medieval history, and then history full stop. The Royal touch: Sacred Monarchy and Scrofula in England and France changed how we understand the medieval pas...
