Letters from Europe: Nationalism and Masculinity in the Post war United States

This presentation examines the experiences of U.S. workers traveling overseas to argue that post-World War II American nationalism was intimately linked to understandings of masculinity.  This paper contributes to the work of a growing body of scholars, such as Michael Kimmel, R.W. Connell, and Victor Seidler, which calls for a less hegemonic, more nuanced understanding of masculinity.  As the process of globalization continued in the decades following World War II and world markets became increasingly connected, employees of U.S. companies found themselves traveling abroad for their jobs.  For example, Sperry Gyroscope, a large U.S. corporation, was an early player in the process of globalization and sent many male employees overseas.  Archival sources and oral histories provide a window into the responses of these American men to their experiences abroad.  The results are fascinating.  Interacting with men and women from other nations such as Germany, France, and Italy forged a keen awareness among American men of their own norms.  One man complained that Italian women enlisted their entire families in attempts to land an American husband.  Rather than undermining or challenging their social values, most workers came away from interactions like this convinced of the superiority of U.S. gender and familial relations.  For these men, the preference for U.S. gender relations was rooted in patriotic, American values such as equality, independence, and fair play.  Examining the responses of U.S. men to their experiences overseas helps us reassess hegemonic notions of gender, including masculinity.  American men came to appreciate that different men and women in different places acted in different ways.  The strong preference these men expressed for their accustomed gender models reveals the way that nationalism and masculinity became increasingly entwined and mutually adjusted in the post-war United States.