ABSTRACT
The American Revolution has always been a topic of considerable interest for the French. Its contemporary commentators discussed its significance with regard to the French Revolution and initiated a long tradition contrasting the two historical events. This chapter analyses the processes by which the American Revolution became a distinct topic in French historiography, that is, how it was emancipated from the French Revolution. This emancipation occurred in the second half of the twentieth-century, at a time when competing interpretations (Marxist v. liberal) of the French Revolution divided intellectual circles. Institutional factors contributed to the treatment of the American Revolution as a distinct event, with the rise of English-language studies in French universities. The bicentennial of the Declaration of Independence and Treaty of Paris provided further opportunities for differentiation.
