Seductive Journey : American Tourists in France from Jefferson to the Jazz Age / Harvey Levenstein.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Levenstein, Harvey, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Americans--France.

Americans.

Tourism--France--History.

Tourism.

France--Social life and customs.

France.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (419 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, [2000]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

For centuries, France has cast an extraordinary spell on travelers. Harvey Levenstein's Seductive Journey explains why so many Americans have visited it, and tells, in colorful detail, what they did when they got there. The result is a highly entertaining examination of the transformation of American attitudes toward French food, sex, and culture, as well as an absorbing exploration of changing notions of class, gender, race, and nationality. Levenstein begins in 1786, when Thomas Jefferson instructed young upper-class American men to travel overseas for self-improvement rather than debauchery. Inspired by these sentiments, many men crossed the Atlantic to develop "taste" and refinement. However, the introduction of the transatlantic steamship in the mid-nineteenth century opened France to people further down the class ladder. As the upper class distanced themselves from the lower-class travelers, tourism in search of culture gave way to the tourism of "conspicuous leisure," sex, and sensuality. Cultural tourism became identified with social-climbing upper-middle-class women. In the 1920s, prohibition in America and a new middle class intent on "having fun" helped make drunken sprees in Paris more enticing than trudging through the Louvre. Bitter outbursts of French anti-Americanism failed to jolt the American ideal of a sensual, happy-go-lucky France, full of joie de vivre. It remained Americans' favorite overseas destination. From Fragonard to foie gras, the delicious details of this story of how American visitors to France responded to changing notions of leisure and blazed the trail for modern mass tourism makes for delightful, thought-provoking reading. "...a thoroughly readable and highly likable book."-Deirdre Blair, New York Times Book Review

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

One. Jefferson versus Adams

Two. Getting There Was Not Half the Fun

Three. A Man's World

Four. Eat, Drink, but Be Wary

Five. "The Athens of Modern Europe"

Six. Pleasures of the Flesh

Seven. Paris Transformed

Eight. Keeping Away from the Joneses

Nine. The Feminization of American Tourism

Ten. ''The Golden Age of Travel"

Eleven. Prisoners of Leisure: Upper-Class Tourism

Twelve. How "The Other Half" Toured

Thirteen. Class, Gender, and the Rise of Antitourism

Fourteen. Machismo, Morality, and Millionaires

Fifteen. Doughboys and Dollars

Sixteen. "How're You Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm?"

Seventeen. A Farewell to "Culture Vultures"

Eighteen. Unhappy Hosts, Unwelcome Visitors

Nineteen. Epilogue

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9780226473772

0226473775

9780226473796

0226473791

OCLC:

1135583211