Why France? : American historians reflect on an enduring fascination /

Why France? : American historians reflect on an enduring fascination / edited by Laura Lee Downs and Stéphane Gerson ; with an afterword by Roger Chartier. - Ithaca : Cornell University Press, (c)2007. - 1 online resource

Includes bibliographical references.

Medievalist and Francophile despite himself / A mid-Atlantic identity / Tough love for France / Fantasy meets reality : a Midwesterner goes to Paris / Défense d'afficher -- / Steven Laurence Kaplan -- France for Belgium / Why Paris? / Catholic connections, Jewish relations, French religion / Europe without personal angst / France, a political romance / Choosing history, discovering France / An African American in Paris / Writing at the margins / It's not about France / Pilgrim's progress : from suburban Canada to Paris (via Montreal, Tokyo, and Tehran) / Between Douai and the U.S.A. / John W. Baldwin -- Robert O. Paxton -- Herman Lebovics -- Lynn Hunt -- Gabrielle M. Spiegel -- Barbara B. Diefendorf -- Thomas Kselman -- Jan Goldstein -- Edward Berenson -- Herrick Chapman -- Tyler Stovall -- Leonard V. Smith -- Ken Alder -- Clare Haru Crowston -- Todd Shepard.

France has long attracted the attention of many of America's most accomplished historians. The field of French history has been vastly influential in American thought, both within the academy and beyond, regardless of France's standing among U.S. political and cultural elites. Even though other countries, from Britain to China, may have had a greater impact on American history, none has exerted quite the same hold on the American historical imagination, particularly in the post-1945 era. To gain a fresh perspective on this passionate relationship, Laura Lee Downs and Stéphane Gerson commissioned a diverse array of historians to write autobiographical essays in which they explore their intellectual, political, and personal engagements with France and its past. In addition to the essays, Why France? includes a lengthy introduction by the editors and an afterword by one of France's most distinguished historians, Roger Chartier. Taken together, these essays provide a rich and thought-provoking portrait of France, the Franco-American relationship, and a half-century of American intellectual life, viewed through the lens of the best scholarship on France. Contributors: Ken Alder, Northwestern University; John W. Baldwin, The Johns Hopkins University; Edward Berenson, New York University; Herrick Chapman, New York University; Roger Chartier, Ècole des Hautes Ètudes en Sciences Sociales; Clare Haru Crowston, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Barbara Diefendorf, Boston University; Laura Lee Downs, Ècole des Hautes Ètudes en Sciences Sociales; Stéphane Gerson, New York University; Jan Goldstein, The University of Chicago; Lynn Hunt, UCLA; Steven Kaplan, Cornell University; Thomas Kselman, Notre Dame University; Herman Lebovics, SUNY Stony Brook; Robert Paxton, Columbia University; Todd Shepard, The Johns Hopkins University; Leonard V. Smith, Oberlin College; Gabrielle Spiegel, The Johns Hopkins University; Tyler Stovall, University of California, Berkeley.




Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002.
http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212

9780801464874 9780801464812

2019725321

GBA684005 bnb

013567780 Uk


Historians--United States.
Americans--France.


Electronic Books.

DC36 / .W494 2007