Rival Modernities - by Venita Datta (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

What do Buffalo Bill and Gustave Eiffel have in common? These celebrities are both part of Venita Datta's analysis of competing notions of modernity and French-American relations at the turn of the twentieth century. Fin-de-siècle France saw itself as the premier modern country. A pioneer in the aviation and cinema industries, its capital Paris was home to the cultural avant-garde. Nonetheless, the French harbored ambivalent feelings toward modernity and expressed their critiques of a certain type of modernity by denigrating it as "American."

To understand this ambivalence, Datta effectively contrasts four pairs of exemplary French and American figures: inventor-entrepreneurs Gustave Eiffel and Thomas Edison, reporters Nellie Bly and Gaston Leroux, celebrity politicians Georges Boulanger and Theodore Roosevelt, and adventurers Buffalo Bill and the Marquis de Morès. Through an examination of the differences in French perceptions of these famous pairs, Datta illustrates that they highlight competing values rooted in national identity, and reflect each nation's struggles with democracy. Filled with fascinating characters and detail, Datta's book illuminates both the rivalries between France and the United States and their deep connections at an important yet understudied moment in history. The legacy of these complex Franco-American cultural relations is profoundly relevant to the challenges contemporary democracies face today.

Review Quotes

"Comparative history at its best. By comparing eight French and American exemplars of fin-de-siècle modern life, Datta gives us startling, often entertaining insights into the brave new world of industrialism, technology, mass media, and celebrities of different stripes."--Edward Berenson, New York University

"In this fascinating study, Venita Datta treats pairs of celebrities like Eiffel and Edison to present a transatlantic dialog between two rival modernities. With great skill, subtlety, and vivid narration she shows how fin de siècle France and gilded age America adopted different paths toward mass culture, democracy, technology, science, and empire."--Richard Kuisel, Georgetown University

"This study of the United States and Third Republic France is both comparative and dynamically interactive. Both nations had celebrity politicians, modern news and publicity industries, pioneering science and technology sectors, and frontiers where men of action could fire popular imaginations, provoking opinion leaders in both nations to measure themselves against the other with fascinating consequences."--Robert A. Nye, Oregon State University, Emeritus

About the Author

Venita Datta is Professor of French Studies at Wellesley College. She is the author of Heroes and Legends of Fin-de-Siècle France: Gender, Politics, and National Identity (2011).