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.
6^th Floor Moynihan Boardroom
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Reservations requested because of limited seating:
HAPP@wilsoncenter.org or 202-691-4166