Unmitigated Gaul: The French Confront America, 1980–2000
Richard Kuisel discusses French attitudes towards American policies, practices, and values during the 1980's and 1990's.
Overview
The French denounced the U.S. as “domineering,” criticized our policies, rejected “Reaganomics,” and hailed a farmer who trashed a McDonald’s site as a national hero. Yet at the same time they said they liked Americans, fought with us in Desert Storm, deregulated their economy, and flocked to see Hollywood movies. How does a historian square persistent anti-Americanism with French esteem for the U.S. and receptivity to Americanization? Explaining French attitudes toward American policies, practices and values during the 1980s and 1990s is the subject of this talk.
Richard Kuisel holds a joint appointment at the Center for German and European Studies and the History Department at Georgetown University where he teaches contemporary European history. His award-winning book, Seducing the French: The Dilemma of Americanization (1993), was a prequel to his new study: The French Way: How France Embraced and Rejected American Values and Power (2011).
12 March 2012, 4:00 – 5:30 p.m.
6th Floor Moynihan Boardroom
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Reservations requested because of limited seating:
HAPP@wilsoncenter.org or 202-691-4166
Speakers
Hosted By
History and Public Policy Program
The History and Public Policy Program makes public the primary source record of 20th and 21st century international history from repositories around the world, facilitates scholarship based on those records, and uses these materials to provide context for classroom, public, and policy debates on global affairs. Read more
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