L'HOMO AMERICANUS

12.5 x 18.5 cm / 288 pages / 30 January 2020

isbn: 978-2-35137-282-1

Editors: Claire Bourhis-Mariotti, François Pernot and Eric Vial

In French only

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Discovering Homo americanus in history...

If by ‘Homo americanus’ and ‘American’ we mean the inhabitants of North America, and in particular the United States, there are many images and above all stereotypes that immediately spring to mind of Europeans and others, in short all those who are not American: the American is loud, dresses in jeans and wears his favourite baseball cap or cowboy hat, listens to country music, thinks American football is the best sport in the world and wonders what ‘soccer’ is, eats his Big Mac at McDonald's and drinks his coffee at Starbucks, owns guns, speaks only English and when he travels thinks that everyone speaks English fluently, still thinks that the communists want to invade the United States, is always in a hurry or, on the contrary, is strangely relaxed, talks only about money and thinks that the Americans are or should be the kings of the world, or at least that the world revolves around the United States. Beyond these largely outrageous clichés, what image has the ‘American’ really projected throughout history and today? Has there ever been, and is there today, an identity, not of America, but of the American, and what is it?