Why do the French appear as incorrigible anti-Americans? Why is France singled out as a bastion of systematic opposition to US policies? Anti-Americanism can be defined as an unfavorable predisposition towards the United States, which leads individuals to interpret American actions through pre-existing views and negative stereotypes, irrespectively of the facts. It is based on a belief that there is something fundamentally wrong at the essence of what is America. This unfavorable predisposition manifests itself in beliefs, attitudes and rhetoric, which may or may not affect political behavior. Is France, according to this definition, anti-American? It is difficult in practice to distinguish between genuine anti-Americanism (disposition) and genuine criticism of the United States (opinion). It is partly because of this definitional ambiguity that France appears more anti-American than its European partners. While it is not clear that the French have a stronger negative predisposition against the US, they do have stronger opinions about America for at least three main reasons: the deep reservoir of anti-American arguments accumulated over the centuries; the simultaneous coexistence of a variety of types of anti-Americanism; and the costless ways in which anti-Americanism has been used for political benefit. This article explores each of these three features in turn, before discussing briefly the consequences of French anti-Americanism on world politics.
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In French Politics, Culture & Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Jun 2005
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 126–141 (16 total)
Randolph Miller
Catholics and republican socialists were already on opposing sides of the culture war that divided France at the end of the nineteenth century. A second and deeper conflict, however, complicated their relationship. The once uneasy rapport between
In Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques
- Published (Print):
- 01 Dec 2020
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 78–100 (23 total)
Sophie Meunier
France has become a worldwide champion of antiglobalization. France is home to José Bové—sheepfarmer turned McDonalds’ wrecker and, in the process, world famous antiglobalization activist. France is also home to ATTAC, a vocal organization originally designed to promote the so-called “Tobin tax” on financial transactions, but which has since become a powerful antiglobalization lobby present in over 30 countries. France is a country where intellectuals have long denounced the cultural and economic shortcomings of US-led globalization, and where newspapers and other media outlets have endlessly documented how France was threatened by foreign entertainment, customs and values. In short, criticizing globalization “sells” in France. French politicians have understood and embraced this trend. On the Left as on the Right, for the past few years, political figures have loaded their speeches with rhetoric critical of a phenomenon that gets a lot less attention in other European countries and in the United States.
In French Politics, Culture & Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Mar 2003
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 20–34 (15 total)
Women and the Language of Statistics in Late-Nineteenth-Century France
Reading the Graphs of Madame Pégard
Hélène Périvier and Rebecca Rogers
French collection of statistics was the recognized highlight of this exhibit, although contemporary black-and-white photographs of the French record room do little justice to the overall effect. 3 Visitors, statisticians, and even the head of the US
In French Politics, Culture & Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Dec 2019
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 1–26 (26 total)
D.M.G. Sutherland
Claude Langlois's work on the French Revolution captures the experience of ordinary people in the country as a whole. Against an interpretation that sees the Revolution as resulting in a secular, modernized France, he emphasizes the ambiguity and uncertainties of the outcome. He is above all interested in assessing the impact of the Revolution on the Church. Although the Revolution had a profound impact on the personnel, landscape, finances, and politics of the Church, the Concordat created the conditions for recovery. There were restorations in pastoral care and practices but in addition, there were also ruptures, especially in the long term. Alongside a nineteenth century of unexpected piety, there were also regions and groups of low practice and indifference. The article also discusses Langlois's contributions to the political history of the coup of 1799, and to population studies.
In Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques
- Published (Print):
- 01 Mar 2013
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 40–50 (11 total)
Laura Frader
An American scholar is often struck by the absence of race in France as a category of analysis or the absence of discussions of race in its historical or sociological dimensions. After all, “race” on this side of the Atlantic, for reasons having to do with the peculiar history of the United States, has long been a focus of discussion. The notion of race has shaped scholarly analysis for decades, in history, sociology, and political science. Race also constitutes a category regularly employed by the state, in the census, in electoral districting, and in affirmative action. In France, on the contrary, race hardly seems acknowledged, in spite of both scholarly and governmental preoccupation with racism and immigration.
In French Politics, Culture & Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Sep 2000
- Article Type:
- Introduction
- Pages:
- 1–4 (4 total)
Suzanne Berger
The future of democracy under globalization is the most burning political debate in France today.1 It lies at the heart of the quarrels between souverainistes and federalists; it is the focus of the assault on neoliberalism and on the media led by Pierre Bourdieu and of the attack on globalization mounted in the pages of Le Monde diplomatique.2 In parallel with these intellectual battles of the past decade, there has been a rising tide of social mobilization and protest over globalization in France. The highwater marks start with the vast strike wave of December 1995, described by a Le Monde journalist as the first strikes in an advanced industrial nation against globalization.
In French Politics, Culture & Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Mar 2002
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 1–12 (12 total)
Michael Scott Christofferson
Jeremy Suri, Power and Protest: Global Revolution and the Rise of Detente (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003).
Arthur Marwick, The Sixties: Cultural Revolution in Britain, France, Italy, and the United States, c.1958-c.1974 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998).
Michael Seidman, The Imaginary Revolution: Parisian Students and Workers in 1968 (New York: Berghahn Books, 2004).
Kristin Ross, May ’68 and Its Afterlives (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002).
Jean-Pierre Le Goff, Mai 68: L’Héritage impossible (Paris: La Découverte, 1998).
In French Politics, Culture & Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Sep 2008
- Article Type:
- Review Article
- Pages:
- 123–140 (18 total)
Mathias Möschel
Within the burgeoning literature on Whiteness studies in France (to which this special issue also contributes), 1 the theme of anti-White racism has acquired a certain prominence. This article intends to critically zoom in on this notion
In French Politics, Culture & Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Jun 2021
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 136–155 (20 total)
The Mendès France Milk Regime
Alcoholism as a Problem of Agricultural Subsidies, 1954–1955
Joseph Bohling
In 1954, Pierre Mendès France committed the state to curbing alcoholism as part of an effort to reorient important agricultural sectors and improve French economic performance, using milk as a symbol of his government's new direction. While Mendès France's milk drinking was often portrayed as the whim of a maverick politician, this article shows instead that it was the expression of a broadly based movement to modernize the economy. Challenging the view of an insular state that exclusively served the powerful alcohol lobbies, this article contends that the success of alcohol reform hinged on Mendès France's ability to overcome parliament and pit other economic sectors and a public health movement against those lobbies. Although it would require the more centralized authority of the Fifth Republic to implement lasting reforms to the alcohol sector, the Mendès France government helped raise public awareness about the purported link between alcoholism and agricultural subsidies that kept uncompetitive producers on the land at the taxpayer's expense.
In French Politics, Culture & Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Dec 2014
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 97–120 (24 total)