ABSTRACT
The three volumes of the French Method of Physical Education were published by the military school of Joinville-Le-Pont between 1925 and 1927 and became one of the most successful reference materials in France for sport and physical education among school, military and civilian institutions. Several authors studied these manuals, but they focused mainly on their pedagogic eclecticism and philosophical background. They also stressed that the Army accepted to reduce its military goal in order to fulfil the hygienic aims that the country considered crucial in the post-war context. Only recently, however, have new perspectives begun exploring more systematically the French Method in its social, political, gender and international aspects. The aim of this paper is to propose a first synthesis of these works and, together with some new insights, to free the French Method from the purely pedagogic history in which it has long remained within the historiography of education.
