The Tour de France: A Cultural History
Posted by Blogmaster in Books (Bicycle History), tags: Cultural, France, History, Tour
Product Description
In this highly original history of the world’s most famous bicycle race, Christopher S. Thompson, mining previously neglected sources and writing with infectious enthusiasm for his subject, tells the compelling story of the Tour de France from its creation in 1903 to the present. Weaving the words of racers, politicians, Tour organizers, and a host of other commentators together with a wide-ranging analysis of the culture surrounding the event–including posters, songs, novels, films, and media coverage–Thompson links the history of the Tour to key moments and themes in French history. He argues persuasively that this hugely popular sporting event has been instrumental in French attempts to grapple with the great challenges they have confronted during their tumultuous twentieth century–from World Wars, political divisions, and class conflict to economic modernization, women’s emancipation, and threats to public health. Examining the enduring popularity of Tour racers, Thompson explores how their public images have changed over the past century. He concludes with a discussion of the longstanding practice of doping and considers the complex case of the seven-time champion Lance Armstrong.
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I enjoy French culture and I’m a huge fan of the Tour de France so this book was a perfect read for me. It opened my eyes to the concept that major sporting events are an ingrained part of national culture and politics. For instance, who would have known that there’s a connection between the Dreyfus affair and the Tour de France? Or that the French communists thought of the racers as their poster children?
The level of detail in the author’s research was outstanding. And although the book seems to have been written primarily for an academic audience, it’s not a difficult read at all.
I truly appreciated the section on “The Hero Dehumanized: The Bicycle Racer as Machine” as well as the latter portions on modern-day doping and use of technology. Because of the length of the races, the repetitive nature of riding a bike and the use of mechanized equipment, pro and amateur racers, in my opinion, sometimes take on the “persona” of a machine. That is such a shame because I’d much rather watch a fallible human have one stellar performance than a robot win over and over again. That’s why my number one favorite moment in the modern Tour is Christophe Agnolutto’s stage win in 2000.
Rating: 5 / 5
and if you want to understand something as enduring as the Tour de France, you need to understand something about what it meant to the people who paid for, participated in and supported it.
A very good book (and a quite remarkable work of history for an author who seems to have spent a bit too much time in the halls of an English department.)
Rating: 4 / 5
In writing The Tour de France: A Cultural History, Christopher Thompson has done that very rare thing: he has increased our net knowledge of the Tour de France. This is extraordinary given that the Tour has been the subject of writers for over 100 years. Mountains of books have been written about the Tour.
This isn’t a book devoted to who dropped whom on what climb. Thompson is fishing in deeper waters. Why is the Tour the way it is? How has it affected French culture and how did French culture affect the Tour? The answers to these questions are important to any cycling fan who wants to know why he has to get up early in the morning to watch a race that is taking place 9 time zones away.
Lance Armstrong voiced his anger that the Tour de France took place in France. Yet, the Tour could only have grown and matured in France. Britain, as a result of the industrial revolution, clustered its population in cities. This made it perfect for stadium sports but ill-suited for cycle road racing. France remained a rural country well into the twentieth century making it perfect for the traveling show that is the Tour. Also, the Tour encouraged and celebrated foreign winners while the Giro connived at denying foreign riders a fair shot at victory. Moreover, the Tour was founded by a strangely gifted man, Henri Desgrange, who guided the Tour from its infancy to sturdy maturity with an iron-fisted despotism. Thompson analyzes the changes to French society that made mass-spectator sport possible at the end of the nineteenth century and how Desgrange exploited them.
The Tour de France, being a cultural history, discusses at length the riders and their economic and social position in society and how it has changed over the years. There is also a very enlightening discussion of doping, a component of racing that cannot be ignored.
This is a wonderful book that will leave the reader with a deeper understanding of the Tour and France. Read this book. It is well written and exhaustively researched. Thompson’s passion for bicycle racing and French history makes each page a pleasure.
There is a bonus. The cover photo of 1947 Tour winner Jean Robic being doused with water by a couple running alongside him has to be one of the greatest cycling pictures of all time. Their obvious joy juxtaposed alongside the struggling rider encapsulates the attraction of the Tour far more than any 1000 words could possibly hope to do.
-Bill McGann, Author of The Story of the Tour de France: How a Newspaper Promotion Became the Greatest Sporting Event in the World.
Rating: 5 / 5
Yes, this book is called “The Tour de France,” yet it’s not about the race in particular; it’s about the race as part of the French psyche in a much more general sense. If you want to know who won a certain stage of a particular race, then this is not the book for you. But when you reach the point in your understanding of the race where you want to know how it fits into the very fabric of Frecnh life — be it in the areas of food, labor or politics — then this is the book for you. As the French used to say, “For 11 months of the year, Charles De Gaulle runs France, but during July it is[race director] Jacques Goddet.”
A very complete examination of the race’s impact on French society — just look at the number of footnotes there are.
Rating: 5 / 5
I’m not sure why this book was written. It’s less about the Tour and more about how the tour fits into french history. I’m also wondering who the intended reader is. Avid cyclists who love the tour and it’s drama? Or history professors locked in ivory towers studying the minutae of human activity over time.
Rating: 1 / 5