A 1969 collection of Cobb's essays on France and French life, "A Second Identity", brought his writing to a popular audience for the first time. In its wide-angle view, the book poignantly intertwines many of Cobb's own personal experiences with those of forgotten participants in historic events. This was followed by more academic works in the 1970s, including "Death in Paris" (1978), which examines the Revolutionary experience through data mined from hundreds of official death records. This scholarly work earned the Wolfson History Prize for Cobb in 1979.