History Biography American history Franco-American relations Diplomacy
With Americans of Past and Present Days is a colecction of seven essays written by Jean Jules Jusserand and first published in 1916.
Jean Jules was a long-serving French Ambassador to the United States and this work details French relations with United States through its history. This essays won the first Pulitzer Prize for History, in 1917.
The book offers a historical vision of the history of the United States, the history of France and in general of the politics of the 18th or 19th centuries. They are written in the context of the First World War and highlight and explore the friendly relationship between the two countries.
The first and longest essay, titled Rochambeau and the French in America, chronicles the relationship between Rochambeau and Washington and how the French viewed the Americans and English during the Revolutionary War. Explain why France supported the United States in the war.
It is not a standard treatise on history, in the sense that it does not seek the rigor and objectivity of a historical text. The main motivation is to promote the strength of the relationship between the two countries. It is therefore that some parts of the story are not mentioned.
"Little more than a century ago the hill on which rises the Capitol of the federal city and the ground around it were covered with woods and underbrush; a few scattered farms had been built here and there, with one or two exceptions mere wooden structures whose low roofs scarcely emerged from their leafy surroundings."
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With Americans of Past and Present Days by Jean Jules Jusserand is believed to be in the public domain in the United States only. It may still be copyrighted in other countries. If you are not in the United States, please check your local laws to ensure this eBook is in the public domain in your country before downloading With Americans of Past and Present Days in PDF or ePub.
Before hot takes and doomfeeds, a French diplomat watched America with curiosity, not cynicism. Jusserand sketches energy, contradiction, and humor in motion. If polarization flattened your view, his outside-in gaze restores texture—and a more generous vocabulary for disagreement.
In 2025, perspective is scarce. These essays counter timeline amnesia with proportion: how a nation sounds from beyond its borders, how myths form, and why noticing precedes judgment.
See the familiar as if new.
Context that cools hot takes.
Borrow perspective before arguing.
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Elegant history and criticism from a diplomat observer who makes past voices immediate.
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