A small observation:

Why has Marc Bloch’s Strange Defeat—written in 1940-41 about the Fall of France before the Germans--become an object of especially charged interest, in thinking about the current status of France in Europe?  This article identifies this moment—it’s quite interesting; Bloch was a medievalist and one of the founders of the Annales school of history, so he would find this use of his book fascinating. 

This is a very interesting example of inter-European assessments. This passage is quite telling:

“France tends to compare itself unfavorably to Germany, but we reassure ourselves by comparing ourselves to the Italians: We’re not as good as the Germans, but at least we’re better than the Italians,’’ Mr. Fourquet said. “But a few weeks into the epidemic, we found ourselves in the same situation as the Italians. So in our collective unconscious, we felt we were much closer to the Club Med of nations of southern Europe than to Germany.’’ 

This is very revealing about some of the dynamics within Europe (and why the continent shows very little cultural evidence of being able to overcome the "narcissism of minor differences" to become a unified political entity, whatever the culturally exogenous structural forces urging that Aufhebung on).  And don't forget: a reckoning is coming like this to a lot of countries, not only in Europe.  Certainly one is underway in the United States as well.