Keith Rathbone

I research twentieth century French social and cultural history. My manuscript, entitled A Nation in Play: Physical Culture, the State, and Society during France's Dark Years, 1932-1948, examines physical education and sports in order to better understand civic life under the dual authoritarian systems of the German Occupation and the Vichy Regime. In investigating physical culture, I address historiographic issues such as the continuity between the Third Republic and the Vichy Regime, the gendered ideology of Vichy sports programs, and the development of collaboration and resistance.