FRANCE IN 1940
‘STRANGE DEFEAT by Marc Bloch, translated by Gerard Hopkins; Geoffrey Cumber- . net Oxtord University Press. English price, 1 ome ik : ARC BLOCH was for 17 years Pro- ‘ fessor of Medieval History at the \Wniversity of Strasbourg, and from 1937 _(continued on™ page 19) ae |
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(continued from page 17) until 1939 Professor of Economic History at the University of Paris. He wrote this book between July and September, 1940, joined the Resistance, and was murdered by the Nazis in 1944, after torture. ‘He writes with precision, discipline and complete command of his material. Personally he is a humble man, but he has a fierce pride of country. He does not detract from the virtues or attainments of other countries, nor does he refrain from criticising Frenchmen; far from it; but the very cornerstone of his life is his belief in the beauty and goodness of French civilisation. He must have found it hard to write as he does about the French defeat of 1940, but he has controlled his emotions, marshalled his evidence, and drawn his conclusions in the most exemplary manner. Marc Bloch covers the ground. He knows that all the peripheral failings were due to a failing at the centre, about which he quotes Montesquieu: "A State founded on the People needs a mainspring; and that mainspring is virtue." The Romans coined the word virtue, and it lost its meaning for them. Rome fell. The sound of the word virtue has become a little priggish in our ears. It wasn’t only the French who lost the meaning of the word, and it wasn’t only the French who were defeated.
G. leF.
Y.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 543, 18 November 1949, Page 17
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277FRANCE IN 1940 New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 543, 18 November 1949, Page 17
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