The Tour de France: A Cultural History, Updated with a New Preface [Paperback]

Christopher S. Thompson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 7, 2008

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. Examining the enduring popularity of Tour racers, Thompson explores how their public images have changed over the past century. A new preface explores the long-standing problem of doping in light of recent scandals.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book is filled fascinating material. . . . Thompson has made a great deal of sense out of this complicated story."--Podium Cafe

"A comprehensive history of France from the race's inception, long before Greg LeMond or Lance Armstrong were born."--The Bike Blog-Albany Times Union

From the Inside Flap

"Shows that sport has been for us moderns the ultimate tabula rasa into which we pour our hopes, fears, prejudices and self-interest."--Robert A. Nye, author of Crime, Madness, & Politics in Modern France and Masculinity and Male Codes of Honor in Modern France

"Chris Thompson has written an engaging, nicely-paced account of France's world-famous cycle race: his writing is lively and full of detail and excitement. But he has done much more than simply narrate the story of the Tour. His book sets the race--its history, its participants and its meaning--firmly in its shifting national and cultural contexts. The sections dealing with professional cycling as a form of labor and with the Tour's place in France's troubled twentieth century are absolutely first-rate: insightful and original. This is the best history of the Tour that we have and are likely to have for many years, a work of scholarship that deserves to find a broad general readership."--Tony Judt, author of Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 406 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 2 edition (April 7, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520256301
• ISBN-13: 978-0520256309
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,039,410 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must-Read for True Tour de France Fans!, June 27, 2008

By 

A. Nony Mous (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tour de France: A Cultural History, Updated with a New Preface (Paperback)

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Why? Because nothing that lasts for over 100 years occurs in a vacuum, January 31, 2008

By 

Ronald E. Buchanan (Birmingham, AL (USA)) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Tour de France: A Cultural History (Hardcover)

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.)

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Tour de France: A Cultural History., January 22, 2008

By 

Bill McGann "Author of The Story of the Tour ... (Cherokee Village, AR, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tour de France: A Cultural History (Hardcover)

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.