15- Un miroir de complaisance

Pro-American discourse in France has always been twofold: an enumeration of French sins is coupled with a gleaming image of American accomplishments. In periods of crises, such analyses cross the Atlantic easily – a foreigner’s praise is especially sweet to a patriot’s ear. At the end of the nineteenth century, French prophecies about the future glory of America were appreciated because they confirmed, from what was considered a neutral point of view, the doctrine of Manifest Destiny. In his memories of the Spanish-American war, President Theodore Roosevelt stated that he took only one book with him on his long journey to Cuba: Edmond Demolins’ The superiority of the Anglo-Saxons, published in Paris in 1897. Now that they’ve become the world’s only superpower, the United States is no longer interested in tributes to its greatness; France, on the other hand, with its spirit of independent foreign policy and its attitude of « anti-Americanism » irritates many Americans. That’s why anti-French writers in America are glad to see so many Parisian essayists define French individualism as the national psychosis of a declining country. This may explain the feelings that authors such as Philippe Roger and Jean-François Revel have aroused in the United States. Some ideas, though, seem to transcend time, among which is the belief that France’s inferiority is rooted in the ethnic composition of its population