Remaking the Male Body : Masculinity and the Uses of Physical Culture in Interwar and Vichy France

The first monograph to explore the imagined link between male athletic prowess and national strength in interwar France. It ultimately sheds light on the roots of Vichy's project for masculine regeneration after the military defeat of 1940. Remaking The Male Body Looks At Interwar Physical Culture As A Set Of Popular Practices And As A Field Of Ideas. It Takes As Its Central Subject The Imagined Failure Of French Manhood That Was Mapped Out In This Realm By Physical Culturist 'experts', Often Physicians. Their Diagnosis Of Intertwined Crises In Masculine Virility And National Vitality Was Surprisingly Widely Shared Across Popular And Political Culture. Theirs Was A Hygienist And Sometimes Overtly Eugenicist Conception Of Physical Exercise And National Strength That Suggests The Persistence Of Fin-de-siecle Pre-occupations With Biological Degeneration And Regeneration Well Beyond The First World War. Joan Tumblety Traces These Patterns Of Thinking About The Male Body Across A Seemingly Disparate Set Of Voices, All Of Whom Argued That The Physical Training Of Men Offered A Salve To France's Real And Imagined Woes. In Interrogating A Range Of Sources, From Get-fit Manuals And The Popular Press, To The Mobilising Campaigns Of Popular Politics On Left And Right And Official Debates About Physical Education, Tumblety Illustrates How The Realm Of Male Physical Culture Was Presented As An Instrument Of Social Hygiene As Well As An Instrument Of Political Struggle. In Highlighting The Purchase Of These Concerns In The Interwar Years, The Book Ultimately Sheds Light On The Roots Of Vichy's Project For Masculine Renewal After The Military Defeat Of 1940.--publisher's Website. Physical Culturists, Masculine Ideals, And Social Hygiene -- The Body Of The Citizen-soldier: Physical Education And The State -- Male Bodies Between Associative Life And Consumer Spectacle: The Mass Press And Popular Sporting Practice -- The Uses Of Sport And Physical Culture In Mass Politics: Mobilizing The 'new Man', 1918-1934 -- Mass Culture And Mass Politics, 1934-1940 -- The Defeat Of French Manhood And The Vichy Imagination. Joan Tumblety. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Cover Contents List of illustrations List of abbreviations Introduction: ‘Mens sana in corpore sano’: the fragile bodies of men 1 Physical Culturists, Masculine Ideals, and Social Hygiene in Interwar France The world of physical culture in the 1920s and 1930s Get-fit literature for men Social hygiene Conclusion 2 The Body of the Citizen-Soldier: Physical Education and the State The ‘French method’ and the army Institutional cross-fertilization The public powers, biological regeneration, and the conseil de révision Physical education reform, surmenage, and social hygiene The era of the Popular Front The Paris World’s Fair of 1937 Conclusion 3 Male Bodies Between Associative Life and Consumer Spectacle: The Mass Press and Popular Practice Male sporting cultures and normative masculinity Body culture, print culture Sport and male bodily regeneration Experience and subjectivity Conclusion 4 The Uses of Sport and Physical Culture in Mass Politics: Mobilizing the ‘New Man’, 1918–1934 Mobilizing young men through sport and physical culture Training a combat elite Building the ‘new man’ and revirilizing France: the poilu and the conscript Conclusion 5 Mass Culture and Mass Politics, 1934–1940 The rightist leagues The socialist and communist left Croix de Feu/Parti Social Français (PSF) Parti Populaire Français (PPF) Front de la Jeunesse Conclusion 6 The Defeat of French Manhood and the Vichy Imagination Physical education and the project of masculine renewal under Vichy Eugenics and regeneration under the Occupation Physical culturists under the Occupation Physical culture on the radical right Conclusion Conclusion Bibliography Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W Y Z Remaking the Male Body looks at interwar physical culture as a set of popular practices and as a field of ideas. It takes as its central subject the imagined failure of French manhood that was mapped out in this realm by physical culturist'experts', often physicians. Their diagnosis of intertwined crises in masculine virility and national vitality was surprisingly widely shared across popular and political culture. Theirs was a hygienist and sometimes overtly eugenicist conception of physical exercise and national strength that suggests the persistence of fin-de-siècle pre-occupations with biological degeneration and regeneration well beyond the First World War. Joan Tumblety traces these patterns of thinking about the male body across a seemingly disparate set of voices, all of whom argued that the physical training of men offered a salve to France's real and imagined woes. In interrogating a range of sources, from get-fit manuals and the popular press, to the mobilising campaigns of popular politics on left and right and official debates about physical education, Tumblety illustrates how the realm of male physical culture was presented as an instrument of social hygiene as well as an instrument of political struggle. In highlighting the purchase of these concerns in the interwar years, the book ultimately sheds light on the roots of Vichy's project for masculine renewal after the military defeat of 1940.