The French Way: How France Embraced and Rejected American Values and Power

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There are over 1,000 McDonald's on French soil. Two Disney theme parks have opened near Paris in the last two decades. And American-inspired vocabulary such as "le weekend" has been absorbed into the French language. But as former French president Jacques Chirac put it: "The U.S. finds France unbearably pretentious. And we find the U.S. unbearably

Reviews

"[R]equired reading for anyone interested in relations between the world's two oldest republics."--Andrew Moravcsik, Foreign Affairs "[D]emonstrates with chilling clarity the pattern of US hegemony."--David Hanley, Times Higher Education "In this erudite study examining Franco-American relationships in the 1980s-90s on foreign policy, economics, and popular culture, Kuisel shows that US domestic and foreign policies were a deterrent to France's national identity."--Choice "Richard Kuisel does a masterful job of highlighting and trying to make sense of numerous paradoxes surrounding the unique and complex French fears about Americanization at the turn of the millennium."--Sophie Meunier, H-Diplo Roundtable Reviews "[E]ven the most traditional practitioners of U.S. diplomatic history, and likewise U.S. foreign-policy makers, will have much to learn from this revealing and masterful account of the French 'ways.'"--Alessandro Brogi, H-Diplo Roundtable Reviews "[T]his is a marvelous book, a work of imaginative and sustained scholarship, bold and far-reaching in its scope, shrewd and incisive in its interpretation, a book in which the heady accumulation of detail in no way interferes with the elaboration of a clear big picture. One might question some aspects of certain conclusions, but there is no getting away from the fact that Kuisel is the absolute master of his subject. This is a book which will become a reference for scholars of France for generations to come."--Jolyon Howorth, H-Diplo Roundtable Reviews "Kuisel offers a highly engaging and meticulously documented analysis... Kuisel is ... very persuasive in elucidating why the USA serves as an indispensable foil for France."--Gino Raymond, French Studies "In a fitting sequel to his classic Seducing the French, Richard Kuisel offers a wide ranging and thought-provoking look at the final two decades of a century-long 'asymmetrical rivalry' between France and the United States. His portrait of the eighties and nineties--focusing especially on diplomatic, economic, and cultural conflicts--raises important questions about how scholars conceptualize anti-Americanism and its impact on policy making."--Richard Langer, Diplomatic History "Kuisel's superbly researched analysis adds depth and texture to big and small instances of French impatience with the unquestioned--and unquestioning might of the world's only remaining superpower at the close of the last century. American travelers will meet the book with knowing smiles, no doubt, while academics will be grateful for gaining perspective on the occasional grilling inflicted by French colleagues."--Doina Pasca Harsanyi, Historian "[F]uture historians ... will be indebted to Kuisel for this readable yet detailed analysis of French views on American politics, economics, and popular culture in the late twentieth century... [H]is long and meticulously researched work ... will become, as are his other works, a must-read for historians of society, culture, and diplomacy in the late twentieth-century."--Rebecca Pulju, H-France Forum "The French Way as a very important contribution... Kuisel offers a rich, even colorful, narrative of political history, international relations ... business and, to some extent cultural, history. That is no small feat... Kuisel deserves much praise for taking on a topic and an era that most of the rest of us, slipping back and forth between history and memory, experienced and therefore feel all too qualified to assess."--Stephen L. Harp, H-France Forum "Richard Kuisel clearly belongs to the most prominent American authors who are responsible for our current state of historical knowledge... Kuisel's book, which is conceptually challenging, methodologically sound, and empirically reliable, has much to offer."--Helke Rausch, H-France Forum

Author Bio

Richard F. Kuisel holds a joint appointment at the BMW Center for German and European Studies and in the History Department at Georgetown University. His books include Seducing the French: The Dilemma of Americanization