Internationalism, National Identities, and Study Abroad

This bookthe first long-term study of educational travel between France and the United Statessuggests that, by studying abroad, ordinary people are constructively involved in international relations. Author Whitney Walton analyzes study abroad from the perspectives of the students, schools, governments, and NGOs involved and charts its changing purpose and meaning throughout the twentieth century. She shows how students' preconceptions of themselves, their culture, and the other nationalityparticularly differences in gender rolesshaped their experiences and were transformed during their time abroad. This book presents Franco-American relations in the twentieth century as a complex mixture of mutual fascination, apprehension, and appreciationan alternative narrative to the common framework of Americanization and anti-Americanism. It offers a new definition of internationalism as a process of questioning stereotypes, reassessing national identities, and acquiring a tolerance for and appreciation of difference.

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