Title: Becoming Americans in Paris: Transatlantic Politics and Culture between the Wars. By Brooke L. Blower (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. 368 pp. $34.95)
Abstract: In Becoming Americans in Paris: Transatlantic Politics and Culture between the Wars, Brook L. Blower examines how cultural migration to Paris in the mid twentieth century shaped the culture of the United States. She sets out to determine: “what difference did this overseas movement make to Americans' sense of themselves and their culture?” (10–11). The text is lucid and readable, and the investigation offers innovative perspectives on several sociopolitical events, such as the Sacco and Vanzetti riots and the American Legion processions in France. However, the monograph lacks a comprehensive theoretical foundation on social displacement and collective identity, a fact which undermines some of Blower's ultimate conclusions on American cultural identity. The first two chapters, “Triumphant Arrivals” and “Reluctant Hosts,” examine the dimensions of life abroad for expatriate Americans and the local response to these newcomers; the first section includes a superb demographic review of American residents in Paris from period sources. Early on Blower addresses the idealized notion of “Americans in Paris,” suggesting that her work will engage a more objective stance. Nonetheless she also notes that “It is hard to resist such romanticizing” (1), and throughout the book her perspectives are informed by a presumed positivity about life in the French capital. She writes, “Through American eyes, Paris glimmered, shimmied” (19) and describes the place as having “a seductive atmosphere” and “87,775 trees for lovers to embrace under” (4). This celebratory register overlooks many negative outcomes of long-term immersion in a non-native society—and thus, the critical approach in some sense binds Blower's analytical frame to the bounds of the studies she attempts to supplant.
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-06-20
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 3
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