BOOK REVIEW 119 hearts showed only in the red and swollen eyes of many women. Out of the specter of war, the nation's armies created a surge of democratic ferver. In Paris there remained only "those who were leaving"—the nobility—and those who were not leaving, who seemed at that moment to recognize no obligation other than to pamper the soldiers of tomorrow. . . The men the most part were not hearty; they were resolute, and that was better.' (p. 78) This Memoirs in fact mirrors the process of transformation of individual psychology and the evolving frame of collective mentalites under the spell of nationalism as an ideology and the specific context of its struggle for survival. We shall illustrate our point: 'So many times we hoped to see it end (the waiting to enter active combat): . . . with anger in my heart, feeling the weight of the rifle I had never fired, . . . I could only consider myself one more among the inglorious vanquished who had never shed their blood in combat.' (p. 87) In 1916, Bloch's journal indeed displayed a quotation of Jaures: 'The beauty of the profession of arms rests in its forcing man to be ready always to make... the supreme effort. There is nothing greater than. .. to give one's life. . . for the home-land.' (p. 30, note 39) Interestingly, Carole Fink argues that the founding of the journal Annales in 1929 'also expressed the postwar realization that historical reality transcended the context of a single nation, its ideology, its culture, and its writers', (p. 58) Yet the individual and the collective 'frame of mind' remained within the confines of nationalism: during his assassination by the Germans on 16 June 1944, for his role in the Resistance against Fascism, Bloch's last words were 'Vive la France'. (p. 64) One important aspect of the Memoirs is its vivid description of the war environment and its brutalizing physical and psychological influence on the individual and collective mentalities which made the soliders—French and German—to think in terms of 'kill and get over with it', (pp. 133-4, 150) He 'had little comprehension of the battle' (p. 94) and knew 'absolutely nothing of what was happening' (p. 85) and yet he went through the war with great determination and courage. He even started living with the carnage without much trouble. 'On days after great carnage except for particular painful personal grief, life appears sweet,' wrote Bloch. (p. 94) He 'nevertheless found war an ugly business, the faces of men awaiting and dreading death not beautiful to behold. . .'(p. 91) In life we always see some exceptional individuals who would retain their intellectual faculties even going through brutal situations like war. One such personality was Marc Bloch. During his stay at La Neuville-an-Pont, Bloch would go into a vivid description of the town. 'The church stood in the middle of the main square. It was very old, its basic structure dating from the finest Gothic period. . . . Sober, robust, perhaps somewhat squat, it was definitely a country church. Yet it had some elegant features: its handsome Gothic western door and the north