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Abstract:

The Tocqueville Society and the Center for Critical Democracy Studies at the American University of Paris, with the support of Princeton University and the Chambrun Foundation, are delighted to sponsor an interdisciplinary conference in Paris on 鈥淎 Quarter-Millennium of Franco-American Relations,鈥� to be held on May 28-29, 2026, to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

For the entire existence of the United States, its story has been deeply intertwined with that of France. Secret French aid in 1776-78, and Lafayette鈥檚 arrival in America, followed by a formal military alliance, proved crucial for the cause of U.S. independence. In the nineteenth century, France鈥檚 sale of the Louisiana territory allowed the United States to expand westward. In the 1880s, France sent the Statue of Liberty as a gift to the Americans. On two occasions in the twentieth century, American armies crossed the Atlantic to fight for France, on French soil.

France and the U.S. remain both formal allies and key trading partners, with millions of their citizens crossing the Atlantic each year to visit the other. Each country also looms large in the other鈥檚 literary and artistic imaginations, as exemplified by figures as different as Benjamin Franklin, Ren茅 de Chateaubriand, James Fenimore Cooper, Claude Monet, Josephine Baker, James Baldwin, Ernest Hemingway, Anna Julia Cooper and Michel Foucault.

There have been tensions and worse, from the Quasi War of 1798-1800 to complex relations with the Union and the Confederacy during the Civil War, de Gaulle鈥檚 withdrawal from NATO command, France鈥檚 opposition to the Iraq War of 2003, and the current tensions between the U.S. and the European Union. Even as some Americans once warned about 鈥淔rench theory,鈥� now some French critics assail American 鈥�wokisme.鈥� And these sister republics, born in the same age of revolution, have always gazed upon each other as into a distorting mirror, hoping that by understanding the other, they will learn to understand themselves. One of the greatest observers of American society and politics was also among the finest observers of French society and politics: Alexis de Tocqueville. In this current moment of international tension, understanding the relationship is more important than ever.

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Program:

May 28

08:45-09:15听Coffee

09:15-09:30听Art Goldhammer听| Introductory Remarks

09:30-11:15听Panel 1 | Revolutions

• Stephen Sawyer听and听William Novak听| Four Theses on the American and French Revolutions
• Richard Bell听| The Unnatural Alliance: Anti-French Sentiment in the American Revolutionary War
• Fran莽ois Furstenberg听| French Intervention in the American Revolution: A Realist Interpretation
• Gilles Mont猫gre听| Beaumarchais et Vergennes avant La Fayette : les origines secr猫tes de l鈥檃lliance franco-am茅ricaine 脿 l鈥櫭�ge des r茅volutions

11:15-11:30听Coffee Break

11:30-13:15听Panel 2 | Political Economy

• Nicolas Barreyre听| The French Alternative: France as a Financial Model for the Industrializing United States (Civil War to World War I)
• Herrick Chapman听and听Lizabeth Cohen听| Sister Republics Confronting Deindustrialization: France and the United States in the Late Twentieth Century
• Sophie Meunier听and听Laurent Warlouzet听| Invested in the Alliance: The Impact of Foreign Direct Investment on Franco-American Relations
• Teddy Paikin听| Capitalism in America: Tocqueville, Chevalier, Say

13:15-14:30听Lunch

14:30-15:45听Plenary Lecture:听David Bell听| Distorting Mirrors: France and the US in Each Other's Eyes

15:45-16:00听Coffee Break

16:00-17:45听Panel 3 | History: Trade and International Relations

• Iris de Rode听| Beyond the Battlefield: The Multifaceted Franco-American Relationship During the American Revolution
• Adam Lebovitz听| Neptune's Trident: Free Trade, International Law and Submarine Warfare in the Age of Revolutions
• Nathan Perl-Rosenthal听| Monsieur Francklin, Accidental Judge: Sovereignty and Jurisdiction in the Franco-American Alliance (ca. 1780)
• Manuel Covo听| A Triangular Relationship in the Age of Revolutions: Haiti, France, and the United States

17:45听Reception at听the H么tel de Talleyrand听(2 rue Saint-Florentin, 75001)

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May 29

08:45-09:15听Coffee

09:15-11:00听Panel 4 | Theory

• Flora Champy听| Rousseau and Tocqueville: Is Liberalism Incompatible with Sovereignty?
• Arthur Ghins听| American French Liberalism
• Gili Kliger听| Claude L茅vi-Strauss and the American Origins of French Structuralism
• Devin Vartija听| Experiencing Equality: A Tocquevillean Reappraisal through the History of Emotions

11:00-11:15听Coffee break

11:15-12:45 Panel 5 | History: 20th century

• Jim Kloppenberg听| The Center-Left in France and the US
• Patrick Weil听| Georges Clemenceau, a political bridge between the American and the French republics (1865-1929)
• Ludivine Broch听| Materiality and Intimacy in France-American Friendship: The French Gratitude Train to Americans in 1949

12:45-14:00听Lunch

14:00-15:15听Plenary Lecture: Fran莽oise M茅lonio听| Tocqueville, l鈥橝m茅rique 芦 au point de vue fran莽ais 禄

15:15-15:30听Coffee break

15:30-17:00 Panel 6 | History: 19th century

• Sarah Maza听| 'Aristocracy of the Skin':听 Beaumont, Tocqueville, and American Racism
• Olivier Zunz听| Was Tocqueville at Gettysburg?
• Yohanna Alimi-Levy听| Filiation, Inheritance, and the Memory of Revolutions: The American Perception of the French Revolutions of 1830 and 1848