Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- 1 French Cycling: Issues and Themes
- 2 The Early Years: Cycling in Search of an Identity, 1869–1891
- 3 Towards Sporting Modernity: Sport as the Driver of Cycling, 1891–1902
- 4 The Belle Epoque and the First World War: Industry, Sport, Utility and Leisure, 1903–1918
- 5 Cycling between the Wars: Sport, Recreation, Ideology, 1919–1939
- 6 From Defeat to the New France: Sport and Society, Cycling and Everyday Life, 1940–1959
- 7 Cycling's Glory Years and their Mediatization, 1960–1980
- 8 Cycling in Transformation: Industry, Recreation, Sport, 1980–2000
- 9 French Cycling in Quest of a New Identity, 2000–2011
- 10 A Sense of Cycling in France
- Bibliography
- Index
4 - The Belle Epoque and the First World War: Industry, Sport, Utility and Leisure, 1903–1918
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- 1 French Cycling: Issues and Themes
- 2 The Early Years: Cycling in Search of an Identity, 1869–1891
- 3 Towards Sporting Modernity: Sport as the Driver of Cycling, 1891–1902
- 4 The Belle Epoque and the First World War: Industry, Sport, Utility and Leisure, 1903–1918
- 5 Cycling between the Wars: Sport, Recreation, Ideology, 1919–1939
- 6 From Defeat to the New France: Sport and Society, Cycling and Everyday Life, 1940–1959
- 7 Cycling's Glory Years and their Mediatization, 1960–1980
- 8 Cycling in Transformation: Industry, Recreation, Sport, 1980–2000
- 9 French Cycling in Quest of a New Identity, 2000–2011
- 10 A Sense of Cycling in France
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Before France was torn apart by the First World War it experienced the golden age of the Belle Epoque. Following the political and social upheavals of the Dreyfus Affair in the 1890s, which had for a time seemed almost to threaten the safety of the Republican regime, destabilized by attacks from the extreme right and doubting the validity of its own political, moral and social principles, France entered a period of relative calm and prosperity. As well as the success of the movement of ‘Republican defence’ in favour of the Republic that strengthened the regime around the turn of the century, a pause in the long-standing guerre francofrançaise between left and right over clericalism and anticlericalism seemed to have been reached with the separation of Church and state in 1905. However, it was also a period of change socially, economically, culturally and politically, and in geo-political terms, the years before 1914 were marked by growing concerns over France's place in the world and over its relationship with the old enemy, Germany.
As well as a Belle Epoque in art and culture – the period saw a flowering of creativity in music, painting, literature and the decorative arts – the early twentieth century was marked by rapid economic development in terms of accelerating industrialization and the social changes concomitant with the growth of industry such as the rise of a significant working class and a growing urbanization of society.
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- Information
- French CyclingA Social and Cultural History, pp. 75 - 101Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2012