Total Historian
French historian Marc Bloch was recently inducted into the Pantheon in Paris, becoming the first historian to receive this national honor. The article details his life as a scholar, soldier, and member of the French Resistance who was executed by the Gestapo in 1944.
Why it matters
The induction of a historian into the Pantheon reflects the enduring cultural and political significance of intellectual contributions to French national identity.
On June 23, choirs of French schoolchildren and a large crowd of dignitaries thronged around the Pantheon in central Paris during a heat wave. Under the glow of torchlight, President Emmanuel Macron spoke of the special courage that had earned the Sorbonne professor Marc Bloch a place in the nation’s most prestigious tomb. Since the French Revolution turned the erstwhile church in the Latin Quarter into a secular temple of civic virtue, France has laid to rest several dozen of its greatest citizens there, among them Charles de Gaulle, Victor Hugo, Marie Curie, and Simone Veil. To the sound of the Marseillaise, the caskets of Bloch and his wife Simonne were inducted into the Pantheon, making him the first historian to receive the honor.
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