born July 6, 1886, Lyon, France
died June 16, 1944, near Lyon
French historian.
He served in the French infantry in World War I. From 1919 he taught medieval history at the University of Strasbourg, where he cofounded the important periodical Annales d'histoire économique et sociale . He taught economic history at the Sorbonne from 1936. During World War II he joined the French Resistance and was captured and killed by the Germans. Among his major works are The Royal Touch (1924), French Rural History (1931), and Feudal Society (1939). As the founder of the Annales school of historiography, with its wide-ranging, interdisciplinary approach, Bloch exerted a huge influence on the study of history.