Born in London, Cobban was educated at Latymer Upper School and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
[3] Cobban and Furet believed that the Revolution did little to change French society, in direct opposition to the orthodox Marxist school,[4] which saw the Revolution as the rise of the bourgeoisie and proletariat against the nobility and the transition from feudalism to capitalism, making it a symbol of progress.
Cobban also notes that French society still had a significant amount of social inequality, as many nobles still retained political and economic leadership and dominance under the collective title with the bourgeois as 'Notables'.
[3] Cobban's views and works in the macrocosm were to be the inspiration and birthplace of the historical school now known as "Revisionism" or "Liberalism".
Along with George V. Taylor, Cobban vehemently attacked the traditional Marxist conception of the past within Marx's dialectic, particularly in his work The Social Interpretation of the French Revolution.