Fascination and Misgivings
Fascination and Misgivings
The United States in French Opinion, 1870–1914
November 2006
Available
Paperback
9780521026918
Through the views of French travelers and diverse French studies about the United States, this book shows how French opinion of the United States evolved during the late nineteenth century. Aspects of American life were puzzling and exotic to the French, yet American towns and industry gave the proof of an emerging economic power, and American society provided attractive models of social engineering. Even before World War I, the United States found its place in French opinion, following trends that continued throughout the twentieth century: fascination and misgivings, attraction and repulsion.
- Unique in the scope of the research; gives an example of how public opinion evolves and changes
- Explains how the USA can be accepted or rejected by foreign countries
- The French edition won the first OAH Foreign-Language Book Prize and a prize from the French Academy of Belles Lettres
Reviews & endorsements
"Meticulously researched, [an] elegantly written work." Journal of Modern History
Product details
November 2006Paperback
9780521026918
468 pages
228 × 152 × 28 mm
0.702kg
Available
Table of Contents
- Preface Claude Fohlen
- Introduction
- Part I. The United States as Exoticism:
- 1. The journey
- 2. At first sight
- 3. Western
- 4. Les Nègres
- 5. A 'manipulated and mechanized life'
- Part II. Models from the United States:
- 6. A truly American democracy
- 7. A political life without grandeur
- 8. The new world of education
- 9. La Belle Américaine
- 10. From the Mormons to Americanism
- 11. Social hell or social harmony?
- Part III. The United States as Power:
- 12. Immigration: strength or weakness?
- 13. Business
- 14. And now, imperialism
- 15. Is there a culture in the United States?
- Conclusion
- Selective bibliography
- Index.
