Situé dans les méthodologies de l’histoire transnationale, l’histoire culturelle, et l’histoire des émotions, cette œuvre examine et compare des modèles de fréquentation et de mariage entre la France et les Etats-Unis pendant les dix-neuvième et vingtième siècles. Les pratiques sociales de fréquentation et de mariage étant devenues des mécanismes aux travers desquels les frontières étaient franchies et de nouveaux espaces culturels étaient créés, ils représentent d’importants éléments d’enchevêtrements transnationaux. Ainsi, cette œuvre non seulement cherche à examiner comment des modèles visibles de mariage transnationaux émergent de ces espaces sociaux créées par ces rencontres interculturelles entre les deux sociétés, mais aussi à montrer comment les dynamiques de ces rencontres ont changé avec le temps. Bien que d’autres études sur le sujet ont pointé du doigt les évidentes raisons socio-économiques de ces mariages, je soutiens que de telles rationalisations sont simplement trop étroites et que de plus larges réflexions doivent inclure les motivations culturelles et émotionnelles, motivations qui ont toujours été en arrière-plan. En localisant et en identifiant les espaces transnationaux qui ont contribué à ces mariages, et en analysant les dimensions culturelles et émotionnelles de ces espaces, j’argumente que les acteurs de ces mariages étaient principalement guidés par un fort attachement émotionnel aux différences culturelles perçues, attachement qui va au-delà de l’unité sociale nationale. Au sein de ces contextes globaux changeant des dix-neuvième et vingtième siècles, ces mariages soulèvent donc d’importantes questions concernant la construction familiale, le rôle du mariage dans la construction d’une cohésion et d’une appartenance nationales, et la perméabilité des frontières nationales pendant les différentes étapes de la construction nationale. / Situated in the methodologies of transnational history, cultural history, and the history of emotions, this work examines and compares courtship and marriage patterns that occurred between France and the United States during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Because the social practices of courtship and marriage became mechanisms through which borders were crossed and new cultural spaces were created, these relationships represent important elements of transnational entanglements. This work, therefore, not only seeks to examine the ways in which observable patterns of transnational marriage emerged out of social spaces of cross-cultural encounter between the two societies but also how the dynamics of those encounters changed over time. While existing scholarship on the subject has pointed to obvious socio economic motivations for these marriages, I contend that such rationalizations are simply too narrow and that greater analytical considerations need to include both cultural and emotional motivations that were always in the background. By locating and identifying transnational spaces that produced marriages, and analyzing the cultural and emotional dimensions of those spaces, I argue that marriage participants were largely driven by a strong emotional attachment to perceived cultural differences that stretched beyond the national polity. Within the shifting global contexts of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, these marriages, therefore, provoke important questions regarding family formation, the role of marriage in the making of national cohesion and belonging, and the permeability of national borders during different stages of the national project.

This dissertation contributes to literature on postwar philanthropy and the Franco-American relationship. It examines the private voluntary relief organization, American Aid to France (AAF), which provided emergency supplies, rehabilitative services, and assisted in the reconstruction of France following the Second World War. Unlike other devastated European countries, Charles de Gaulle did not invite the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) to host a program, which limited France’s participation in the transnational relief movement of the immediate postwar period and allowed AAF to become the principal foreign private voluntary aid agency operating in Liberated France. From 1944 to 1956, AAF asserted that its assistance reflected the strength of the Franco-American alliance, and kinship felt between two countries with a shared history of liberal revolution and republicanism. AAF’s statements expressing “goodwill” and “historical friendship” towards France rapidly began to assume a more political tone as Cold War tensions intensified. From 1947 onward, AAF became increasingly outspoken in its support for capitalism, democracy, and international cooperation. These statements were crafted for, and appealed to, U.S. authorities who believed France was the key to containing communism in Europe. In reality, AAF’s main concern was redressing the destruction of Normandy caused by Allied bombing campaigns, and the organization showed no hesitation to work with mayors from across the political spectrum in devastated French communities to achieve this goal. AAF’s private voluntary status shielded the organization from French criticisms of Americanization chiefly aimed at the Marshall Plan. This dissertation demonstrates that AAF was part of an independent, robust private voluntary relief sphere that contributed to Europe’s recovery, and helped citizens in the United States and France come to terms with the transition from war to peace. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This dissertation contributes to literature on postwar philanthropy and Franco-American relations. It examines American Aid to France (AAF), one of hundreds of U.S. private voluntary relief organizations founded during the Second World War to help devastated civilians. Operating from 1944 to 1956, AAF’s efforts to provide emergency supplies, rehabilitative services, and assist in the reconstruction of Liberated France was a significant private affirmation of the Franco-American alliance during a period of increasingly tense international relations. Private voluntary relief organizations have been overlooked in scholarship in favour of larger agencies such as the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), which has resulted in a considerable emphasis on transnationalism in the literature on postwar relief. Examining Franco-American relations through the prism of AAF’s relief reveals that a dynamic alternative network of private assistance, which operated firmly outside of the transnational relief movement, contributed in meaningful ways to France’s recovery.