La Débâcle describes the decline of the utterly frivolous and thoroughly corrupt French Empire during the Battle of Sedan. The book outlines the painful defeat at the hands of Germany, which achieved victories with its scientific spirit and ruthless military apparatus. The story continues with the subsequent siege of Paris and the conflagration of the Commune, as well as the horrors of "the execrable week" of the Versailles repression. This masterpiece is both a meticulous military reportage and a gripping fresco of grief, pain, and blood. It offers a profound analysis of the rupture in the collective consciousness of the French, a trauma that would flare up again in June 1940. As Raoul Girardet notes, La Débâcle is an indispensable document for understanding the moral history of modern France.