Chris Thompson is the author of The Tour de France: A Cultural History, published by the University of California Press (2006). He is in the preliminary stages of researching his second book, More than just a Game: Sport and Society in Interwar France. Thompson is the author of several articles on the social and cultural history of bicycling in France. Thompson was the Recipient of Ball State's 2002 Excellence in Teaching Award, in which he taught a “dream course" entitled “Looking Back to the Future: A History of the 21st Century." The reading assignments for this course exposed students to a variety of perspectives about the future and helped them identify critical challenges facing humanity.