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`The Historian's Craft' transcends any specific field of historical study. This is not an examination of French medievalism or Russia in the 19th century; it is not about the history of the American West or African slavery. Instead, the author looks at the techniques of historical inquiry. He tries to help the beginning researcher and writer of history develop a mindset of questions and tactics that would be helpful in studying the past. Any history student who reads this book at first does not understand why the book is such a big deal. `I know all of this already,' is probably a common response to Bloch's book. Then you realize that the reason you know this is due to the importance of what the author wrote. You absorbed it from professors who learned it from reading this book.
This French historian deals with a massive amount of information useful to the budding historian. Sections on perspective, sources, statistics, criticism, and analysis contain page after page of wise, insightful information. When discussing fraud and error in historical sources, for example, Bloch points out how historians too often accept at face value government documents or legal sources. Any student of history worth his salt should always question his sources not only to discover their veracity but also to uncover possible motivations for falsehood when the document turns out to be a forgery. If this sounds like detective work, it is. One of the most important things a historian will ever do is work out every angle in his research. This is not always possible, of course, but the best historians generally tend to be the ones who ask the most nuanced questions about their sources.
The most serious drawback to this book is the uneven translation. Some sections are the height of clarity; others are cloudy and nearly unreadable. The best example of haziness is in the part about statistical study. I strongly feel that the translator did not understand what the author attempted to say in the original French. I reread this part at least twice and still am not sure what it meant. It is time for a new translation. A lesser problem concerns Bloch's citations of French historians. If you have never heard of Thiers, Mabillon, or Fustel de Coulanges, you should probably look them up in an online encyclopedia and read about them. These arcane references are certainly not the fault of Bloch; he is only citing historians he was familiar with in the course of his own work. For American students, some of these guys are extremely obscure.
This book, despite the limitations placed upon it by a poor translation, is an absolute must read for serious students of history. At the very least, one must recognize this man's name so that they do not look like an ... when it comes up in conversation. Bloch has performed a great service to the study of history, and he richly deserves his position in posterity.
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