The Historian's Craft

French historian Marc Bloch asks the central question: why should we know history?

In this iconic book, he argues that knowledge of the past is not just an academic science, but a practical tool that helps a person live consciously.

Marc Bloch (1886–1944) was a French historian, the author of works on medieval France and the broader problems of history’s methodology, and the founder of his own historical school. A participant in the French Resistance, he was executed by the Gestapo in 1944.

This book was born from a question asked by a child: “Dad, explain to me why history is needed.”

And indeed, why? What are these dead pieces of knowledge about what happened earlier for? What do we have to do with them?

Marc Bloch’s book “The Apology for History” is an answer to these questions and a justification for the historian’s right to practice their craft, so that knowledge of the past helps people “live better.”