Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff is a historian in the Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, where she works on the history of U.S.-European relations and contributes to the office’s digital and oral history initiatives. She serves as an affiliated scholar of the Center for the Study of Sport and Leisure in Society (CSSLS) at George Mason University and is a member of the North American Society for Sports History and the Overseas Press Club of America. Dr. Krasnoff’s expertise includes history of youth, the media, sports medicine, history of the body, and sports diplomacy, and she has authored articles, book chapters, and given talks on these topics.

• Introduction: Setting the SceneChapter 1: To Remake the Nation's Image, 1958- 1973Chapter 2: De Gaulle's Sports Crisis, 1958-1973Chapter 3: Creating an Athletic Force de Frappe, 1973-1984Chapter 4: Slackening the Strings, 1984-1992Chapter 5: Victors Triumphant? 1992-2000Chapter 6: Dénouement, 2000-2010Conclusion: A Second Sports Crisis?NotesAnnex I: Selected Biographies of Oral History Subjects

Covering a period of over fifty years, the book considers sports as a primary means by which the French state sought to obtain and expand its own “soft power” in the world arena through the encouragement of national sports programs and culture. Krasnoff has drawn on an impressive range of archival material, as well as numerous interviews that provide readers with a unique perspective on recent years for which much of the written record remains off-limits to researchers. Concluding with a discussion of the most recent “sports crisis” in France (the national football team has suffered some serious losses n the last several years) Krasnoff’s study places more recent events in French sports culture in the context of a nation struggling with competing definitions of Frenchness.

Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff is a historian in the Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, where she works on the history of U.S.-European relations and contributes to the office’s digital and oral history initiatives. She serves as an affiliated scholar of the Center for the Study of Sport and Leisure in Society (CSSLS) at George Mason University and is a member of the North American Society for Sports History and the Overseas Press Club of America. Dr. Krasnoff’s expertise includes history of youth, the media, sports medicine, history of the body, and sports diplomacy, and she has authored articles, book chapters, and given talks on these topics.

• Introduction: Setting the SceneChapter 1: To Remake the Nation's Image, 1958- 1973Chapter 2: De Gaulle's Sports Crisis, 1958-1973Chapter 3: Creating an Athletic Force de Frappe, 1973-1984Chapter 4: Slackening the Strings, 1984-1992Chapter 5: Victors Triumphant? 1992-2000Chapter 6: Dénouement, 2000-2010Conclusion: A Second Sports Crisis?NotesAnnex I: Selected Biographies of Oral History Subjects

Covering a period of over fifty years, the book considers sports as a primary means by which the French state sought to obtain and expand its own “soft power” in the world arena through the encouragement of national sports programs and culture. Krasnoff has drawn on an impressive range of archival material, as well as numerous interviews that provide readers with a unique perspective on recent years for which much of the written record remains off-limits to researchers. Concluding with a discussion of the most recent “sports crisis” in France (the national football team has suffered some serious losses n the last several years) Krasnoff’s study places more recent events in French sports culture in the context of a nation struggling with competing definitions of Frenchness.

Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff is a historian in the Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, where she works on the history of U.S.-European relations and contributes to the office’s digital and oral history initiatives. She serves as an affiliated scholar of the Center for the Study of Sport and Leisure in Society (CSSLS) at George Mason University and is a member of the North American Society for Sports History and the Overseas Press Club of America. Dr. Krasnoff’s expertise includes history of youth, the media, sports medicine, history of the body, and sports diplomacy, and she has authored articles, book chapters, and given talks on these topics.

• Introduction: Setting the SceneChapter 1: To Remake the Nation's Image, 1958- 1973Chapter 2: De Gaulle's Sports Crisis, 1958-1973Chapter 3: Creating an Athletic Force de Frappe, 1973-1984Chapter 4: Slackening the Strings, 1984-1992Chapter 5: Victors Triumphant? 1992-2000Chapter 6: Dénouement, 2000-2010Conclusion: A Second Sports Crisis?NotesAnnex I: Selected Biographies of Oral History Subjects

Covering a period of over fifty years, the book considers sports as a primary means by which the French state sought to obtain and expand its own “soft power” in the world arena through the encouragement of national sports programs and culture. Krasnoff has drawn on an impressive range of archival material, as well as numerous interviews that provide readers with a unique perspective on recent years for which much of the written record remains off-limits to researchers. Concluding with a discussion of the most recent “sports crisis” in France (the national football team has suffered some serious losses n the last several years) Krasnoff’s study places more recent events in French sports culture in the context of a nation struggling with competing definitions of Frenchness.