Choice Review

Young (Univ. of Winnipeg) examines the efforts of French officials, diplomats, and cultural figures to promote a positive image of France in the US during an age of global warfare. The author integrates traditional diplomatic history with a contemporary culturalist approach into a narrative that is both enlightening and entertaining. French propagandists suffered in comparison with their German counterparts from a relative lack of official funding and from the absence of a large francophone immigrant community in the US, but they compensated by appealing to the Francophile eastern elite's admiration for French high culture, and by utilizing private citizens, both French and American, to spread goodwill and defuse misunderstandings. Perhaps the most striking aspect of Young's study is its demonstration that in many ways, little has changed in the stereotypes through which France and the US too often view one another. Young concludes that while French propaganda failed to overcome US neutrality and opposition to war, it did succeed in shaping the image most Americans had of France as beleaguered defender of civilization and democracy, even in the dark days of 1940. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. All readers and libraries. D. A. Harvey New College of Florida