tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2156536327610779049.post6091617875261416617..comments2024-02-23T11:23:45.971-05:00Comments on Lost Motorcyclist: A List of French Military VictoriesLost Motorcyclisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08873504561959138792noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2156536327610779049.post-820216137429613602010-09-17T16:22:14.774-04:002010-09-17T16:22:14.774-04:00A Strange Defeat has been translated and published...<i>A Strange Defeat</i> has been translated and published in English, but no one has provided an English Wikipedia entry for it yet.<br /><br />Bloch's observations receive comment in <a href="http://everything2.com/title/The+Fall+of+France+in+1940" rel="nofollow">this article</a>, which also addresses the broader context of the French defeat in 1940 in the light of evidence not available to Bloch, who wrote in the midst of the conflict.Madeyehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02593933575568389288noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2156536327610779049.post-22304511285415242542010-09-17T11:23:40.820-04:002010-09-17T11:23:40.820-04:00That was an interesting link to Marc Bloch, and ev...That was an interesting link to Marc Bloch, and even though I can read French enough to make out what it was saying, it was kind of slow going. It wasn't any easier for me to understand "Google Translation" to English. Too bad there does not seem to be an English version.Lost Motorcyclisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08873504561959138792noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2156536327610779049.post-39247613606281077792010-09-17T09:50:16.797-04:002010-09-17T09:50:16.797-04:00I'm continually appalled by peoples' gener...I'm continually appalled by peoples' general level of ignorance of history, even of conventional 'Western' history (i.e. in contrast to 'world history' which seems to be virtually totally absent).<br /><br />As far as the military history of France, people seems not to realize that, until the 19th Century, 'France' (in its various political forms) was one of the two major military forces in Europe. It was only with the emergence of the 'German' (Germany itself only having been formed, as such, in the mid-late 19th Century) Empire that the continental threat to France emerged.<br /><br />France, of course, took the brunt of the German campaign of WWI on the 'Western Front,' suffering one of the highest casualty death rates (almost 5% of their total population, exceeded only by the Ottoman Empire), but holding the line against Germany. A victory by any measure.<br /><br />Dismissing the French militarily in WWII entirely misses the subtleties of the situation. Those horrendous death rates in WWI, only 20 years earlier, well within the memory of most adults, had a fundamental impact on French attitudes and ability to resist. <br /><br />No one can speak with any authority about the German invasion of France without consideration of Marc Bloch's <a href="http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27%C3%89trange_D%C3%A9faite" rel="nofollow">L'Étrange Défaite</a>.Madeyehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02593933575568389288noreply@blogger.com