Whitney Walton approaches the nineteenth-century French industrial development from a new perspective--that of consumption. She analyzes the French performance at the Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851 to illustrate how bourgeois consumers influenced France's distinctive pattern of industrial development. She also demonstrates the importance of consumption and gender in class formation and reveals how women influenced industry in their role as consumers.

Walton examines important consumer goods industries that have been rarely studied by historians, such as the manufacture of wallpaper,...

This book--the first long-term study of educational travel between France and the United States--suggests that, by studying abroad, ordinary people are constructively involved in international relations. Author Whitney Walton analyzes study abroad from the perspectives of the students, schools, governments, and NGOs involved and charts its changing purpose and meaning throughout the twentieth century. She shows how students' preconceptions of themselves, their culture, and the other nationality--particularly differences in gender roles--shaped their experiences and were transformed during...