France and America

The Remarque Institute at NYU is devoted to fostering understanding between Europe and America. Tony Judt, the historian who runs it, takes a shot at explaining and defending France in Newsweek.

America and France are the only countries in the world today (since the demise of the Soviet Union) that share a universal ambition. Both are proselytizing nations, and what they are selling is their model of the good society, the well-lived life. America is the “city on a hill,” a community marinated in the conviction of its own righteousness and the special virtues of its political arrangements, its civil organs and its individual freedoms. When American politicians speak, as they have done over the centuries, of bringing liberty, democracy and opportunity to the rest of humanity, they touch a deep chord in the American people—many of whose ancestors came to the United States on the strength of that promise. For many Americans, intervention overseas is simply the benevolent extension to others of their own fortunate birthright.
But France, too, has a “project.” It is not, of course, an individualistic, Protestant ambition to construct a godly community, much less facilitate “the pursuit of happiness” (a distinctively American twist on the 18th-century design for human improvement, and one that never much appealed to the world-weary French). What France has long been selling is civilization. French colonialism was promoted by its defenders and practitioners as a “civilizing —mission.” French cultural protectionism— l’exception culturelle, as it is presented to the skeptical free-traders in Brussels—is not just about subsidizing obscure art-house films; it is the only way to preserve the national patrimoine for the benefit of mankind as a whole.