Yann Potin's Conference "Marc Bloch. History in Resistance"

As part of the first cycle of conferences Agora des Savoirs 2026-2027.

The medievalist Marc Bloch (1886-1944) is perhaps better known to the general public for his heroic journey and commitment against the Nazi occupation than for his scientific work, which has profoundly renewed historical studies.

A brilliant graduate of the École Normale Supérieure, co-founder with Lucien Febvre of the journal Annales d’histoire économique et sociale (1929), a fervent republican of Alsatian Jewish origin, an atheist and patriot, a fighter in both World Wars, a resistance member, he embodies a major figure of the engaged intellectual, to the point of sacrificing his life as he was brutally murdered by the Nazis in 1944. The historian of Les Rois thaumaturges (1924) and La Société féodale (1940) also exerted considerable influence in the field of knowledge, inaugurating a new way of doing history, open to social sciences and engaged with his time.

Marc Bloch's entry into the Panthéon on June 16, 2026, provides an opportunity to showcase the inextricable scholarly, political, and moral alliance embodied by his journey, his works, and his posthumous life. History, as an intellectual approach, a matter for personal reflection, and a source of collective engagement, was for him, throughout his life, a form of resistance.

Free entry subject to availability.

Author Biography

Yann Potin is the chief curator at the National Archives and an associate lecturer in legal history at the University of Paris-Nord. He co-directed with Jean-François Sirinelli, Générations historiennes (19th-20th centuries) (CNRS, editions 2019).

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