Author: Walton Whitney
Publisher: Berghahn Journals
ISSN: 1558-5271
Source: French Politics, Culture & Society, Vol.31, Iss.2, 2013-06, pp. : 34-57
Disclaimer: Any content in publications that violate the sovereignty, the constitution or regulations of the PRC is not accepted or approved by CNPIEC.
Abstract
This essay examines representations of Jacqueline Kennedy's French connections in American and French popular media and in accounts of the Kennedy presidency to assert her significance in French-American relations and in United States foreign relations broadly construed to include, in Kristin Hoganson's words, “imaginative engagement with peoples of other nations and cultures. While biographers routinely acknowledge French influences in Mrs. Kennedy's life and in her practices as first lady, this study focuses on them in depth, notably the undergraduate junior year she spent studying in France in 1949-50 that consolidated her knowledge and appreciation of all things French, and cultivated her interest in other cultures generally. As first lady, she was uniquely positioned to perform these qualities on an international stage. This deployment of Frenchness enhanced her own and JFK's popularity at home and abroad, and suggested a more cosmopolitan way of being American at the height of the Cold War.
Related content
Social Work and McCarthyism in the Early 1950's
Journal of Progressive Human Services, Vol. 15, Iss. 1, 2004-05 ,pp. :
`The Age of the Beatles': Parliament and Popular Music in the 1960s
Contemporary British History, Vol. 27, Iss. 1, 2013-03 ,pp. :
Current Politics and Economics of South and Central America, Vol. , Iss. , 2014-10 ,pp. :
Egypt:Background and U.S. Relations
Current Politics and Economics of Africa, Vol. , Iss. , 2014-01 ,pp. :