Editing Marc Bloch (section)

=== Early research ===
[[File:Engagement_decennal_Marc_Bloch.jpg|alt=Scan of the piece of paper on which Bloch promises to work for ten years|left|thumb|upright=1.5|Bloch's official engagement papers for the ''[[École normale supérieure (Paris)|l'École Normale Supérieure]]'' in 1908 for a 10-year period]]
By this time, changes were taking place in French academia. In Bloch's own speciality of history, attempts were being made at instilling a more scientific methodology. In other, newer departments such a sociology, efforts were made at establishing an independent identity.{{Sfn|Friedman|1996|p=3}}  Bloch graduated in 1908 with degrees in both geography and history (Davies notes, given Bloch's later divergent interests, the significance of the two qualifications).{{Sfn|Davies|1967|p=267}} He had a high respect for [[historical geography]], then a speciality of French historiography,{{Sfn|Davies|1967|p=275}} as practised by his tutor [[Vidal de la Blache]] whose ''Tableau de la géographie'' Bloch had studied at the ÉNS,{{Sfn|Baulig|1945|p=5}} and [[Lucien Gallois]].{{Sfn|Davies|1967|p=275}} Bloch applied unsuccessfully for a fellowship at the ''[[Fondation Dosne-Thiers|Fondation Thiers]]''.{{Sfn|Fink|1989|p=40}} As a result,{{Sfn|Fink|1989|p=40}} he travelled to Germany in 1909{{Sfn|Davies|1967|p=267}} where he studied [[demography]] under [[Karl Bücher]] in Leipzig and [[Religious studies|religion]]{{Sfn|Lyon|1987|p=198}} under [[Adolf von Harnack|Adolf Harnack]] in Berlin;{{Sfn|Davies|1967|p=267}} he did not, however, particularly socialise with fellow students while in Germany.{{Sfn|Schöttler|2010|p=415}} He returned to France the following year and again applied to the ''Fondation'', this time successfully.{{Sfn|Fink|1989|p=40}} Bloch researched the medieval [[Île-de-France]]{{Sfn|Davies|1967|p=267}} in preparation for his thesis.{{Sfn|Lyon|1985|p=184}} This research was Bloch's first focus on rural history.{{Sfn|Hughes|2002|p=127}} His parents had moved house and now resided at the [[Avenue d'Orleans]], not far from Bloch's quarters.{{Sfn|Fink|1989|p=43}}{{Refn|This road is now the ''Avenue de Maréchal Leclerc''.{{sfn|Weber|1991|p=245}}|group=note}}

Bloch's research at the Fondation{{Refn|This was nicknamed the ''Nouvelle Sorbonne'' by contemporaries, and has been described by Friedman as "a residence for a very select group of doctoral students"; with an intake of only five students annually, residency lasted three years. During Bloch's tenure, the director of ''Fondation Thiers'' was the philosopher [[Emile Boutroux]].{{sfn|Friedman|1996|pp=74–75}}|group=note}}—especially his research into the [[Capetian dynasty|Capetian kings]]—laid the groundwork for his career.{{Sfn|Fink|1989|p=44}} He began by creating maps of the Paris area illustrating where serfdom had thrived and where it had not. He also investigated the nature of serfdom, the culture of which, he discovered, was founded almost completely on custom and practice.{{Sfn|Fink|1989|p=43}} His studies of this period formed Bloch into a mature scholar and first brought him into contact with other disciplines whose relevance he was to emphasise for most of his career. Serfdom as a topic was so broad that he touched on commerce, currency, popular religion, the nobility, as well as art, architecture, and literature.{{Sfn|Fink|1989|p=43}} His [[doctoral thesis]]—a study of 10th-century French serfdom—was titled ''Rois et Serfs, un Chapitre d'Histoire Capétienne''. Although it helped mould Bloch's ideas for the future, it did not, says Bryce Loyn, give any indication of the originality of thought that Bloch would later be known for,{{Sfn|Lyon|1987|p=198}} and was not vastly different to what others had written on the subject.{{Sfn|Lyon|1985|p=183}} Following his graduation, he taught at two [[lycée]]s,{{Sfn|Lyon|1987|p=198}} first in Montpelier, a minor university town of 66,000 inhabitants.{{Sfn|Fink|1989|p=46}} With Bloch working over 16 hours a week on his classes, there was little time for him to work on his thesis.{{Sfn|Fink|1989|p=46}} He also taught at the [[University of Amiens]].{{Sfn|Davies|1967|p=267}} While there, he wrote a review of Febvre's first book, ''Histoire de Franche-Comté''.{{Sfn|Hughes-Warrington|2015|p=12}} Bloch intended to turn his thesis into a book, but the First World War intervened.{{Sfn|Davies|1967|p=269}}{{Refn|Bloch did, however, continually refer back to this research throughout the rest of his career, and [[Guy Fourquin]]'s 1963 monograph ''Les campagnes de la rdgion parisienne li la fin du moyen age'' effectively completed the study.{{sfn|Davies|1967|p=269}}|group=note}}