Transimperial comparisons: France & the U.S., 1950s

Abstract: This conference shows how complexly actors in the late French empire (1950s) situated themselves in comparison to multiple intertwined others, foremostly the rising US empire. Underlying this complexity was the fact that both France and the United States were multi-dimensional in the eye of the French comparison-making beholder. The United States was three things at once (a nation-state, settler colony, and a rising empire) and France, four things: a polity dominated by the US empire, a nation-state, a nation-state-settler-colony one might call France-Algeria, and an empire. I study four intertwined dimensions of this story. France-as-an-empire was compared with the United States-as-an-empire through an Algerian prism. Comparisons with America as a nation-state-settler-colony structured how people thought about France-Algeria. Algerians’ nature vis-à-vis France and French policies vis-à-vis them were considered through the lens of native Americans. And the ambiguous figure of the native American reflected worries and hopes about France’s place in a US-dominated world.

Chair: Christian Olsson, Université libre de Bruxelles - REPI

This event will be held in a hybrid format
Registration required: https://forms.office.com/e/FEVxsUxGAm?origin=lprLink (complementary sandwich)

Friday June 7, 2024 | 11:30 am - 1:30 pm
REPI - Université libre de Bruxelles
Campus du Solbosch – IEE RT39 Geremek Room
39 Avenue Franklin Roosevelt
1050 Bruxelles