Thesis (Ph.D.)--Bowling Green State University, 2008. / Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 256 p. : ill. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis analyzes and demonstrates the similarities and differences between some of the national symbols of France and the United States. This includes the shared and borrowed aspects of each one and the ways in which each culture is reflected through, and built around them. The flags, national anthems, and several national icons such as France's Marianne and Uncle Sam are discussed. This analysis deals with the historical contexts and cultural meanings of the symbols, showing the changes each has undertaken in form and in national and international importance. Through the study of national symbols, this thesis reveals the similarities along with the differences between the two nations, which are often perceived as being highly dissimilar and even opposing in belief systems, cultures, and histories.

L’histoire d’Ellis Island, de l’ouverture de la station d’immigration en 1892 jusqu’à la restauration du site dans les années 1980 après une période d’abandon et d’oubli, reflète les interactions entre les discours sur l’immigration et la construction de l’identité politique et culturelle de la nation américaine. Le musée de l’immigration qui a ouvert sur l’île en 1990, dans le bâtiment même où sont passés douze millions d’immigrants entre 1892 et le milieu des années 1920, est devenu le lieu de mémoire de l’immigration américaine. En partant du postulat que les sociétés construisent leur représentation du passé et leur mémoire collective pour répondre à leurs besoins dans le présent, cette thèse entend montrer comment et à quelles fins la nation américaine a choisi de mettre en avant, à un moment donné, certains éléments de son histoire pour s’affirmer « nation of immigrants ». La création du musée d’Ellis Island, qui a consacré l’immigration et l’ethnicité comme composantes essentielles de l’identité américaine, était en effet aussi un choix de mémoire de l’Etat fédéral, témoignant d’une manière d’interpréter et de représenter l’Histoire. / The story of Ellis Island, from the opening of the immigration station in 1892 to the restoration of the site in the 1980s after a period of neglect and oblivion, reflects the interactions between discourses on immigration and the building of the political and cultural identity of the American nation. The immigration museum that opened on the island in 1990, in the building where twelve million immigrants were processed between 1892 and the mid-1920s, has become the site of memory of American immigration. Starting from the postulate that societies build their representation of the past and their collective memory to meet their demands in the present, this thesis aims at showing how and for what purposes the American nation chose to put forward, at a certain time, selected pieces of its history to assert itself “ nation of immigrants”. The setting-up of the Ellis Island museum, which affirmed immigration and ethnicity as essential components of the American identity, was indeed also a choice of memory by the Federal government, testifying to a way of interpreting and representing History.