PAULINE PERETZ

“AUTHORS ON TOUR” PROGRAM - NON-FICTION LIST — 2011
PAULINE PERETZ
dates
March 7-14
East Coast Only
Biography
Pauline Peretz is a Professor of contemporary history at
the University of Nantes. A specialist on the United States
and contemporary international affairs with a focus on
foreign affairs, American disaporas and interethnic relations,
at present she occupies the chair of modern and
contemporary political history she has lectured on
contemporary politics at the Collège de France.. since 2001.
She also teaches a workshop at the Institut d’Etudes
Politiques (Paris) on diasporas, New York history and
research methodology in international relations. Her latest
work on the city of New York is a captivating literary
anthology, sociological and historical essay and dictionary.
New York Histoire, Promenades, Anthologie et Dictionnaire,
was very well received in France. It was published by Robert
Laffont in the collection “Bouquins” in October 2009.
A graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Ulm she has a Masters in International Affairs from the School
of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University.
Peretz is on a number of editorial committees, among them La Vie des Idées (http://www.laviedesidees.fr/)
and Translatlantica. She is a member of the Academic Advisory Council for Soviet Jewry Archival Project
(American Jewish Historical Society).
Soviet Jewish Emigration: the role of the United States from 1953 to the late 80’s: her Ph.D. research
thesis for the Research Center of North American History (Université Paris I, 2004) will soon be published
in English.
selected bibliography
Non-fiction in English
• To be published: Let my People Go! The
Non-fiction in French
Transnational Politics of Soviet Jewish Emigration
during the Cold War, Holmes & Meier 2010
If you would like to invite this author, please fill out the application form and email it to:
Anne-Sophie Hermil, Tel: 212 439 1467 |[email protected]
“AUTHORS ON TOUR” PROGRAM - NON-FICTION LIST — 2011
•
Washington-Moscou-Jérusalem. Le combat pour les
Juifs soviétiques, Washington-Moscou-Jérusalem
1953-1990, Paris, Armand Colin, 2006 ;
•
New York. Histoire, Promenades, Anthologie et
Dictionnaire, Robert Laffont, collection « Bouquins »,
October 2009.
lectures offered
in French/English
(in French)
1- New York, lieu d'expérimentation sociale et politique au XXème siècle
"New York ne tire pas son identité d’un lieu, d’une nationalité, ou d’un groupe ethnique, mais de la
convergence de tous les lieux, de toutes les nationalités, de tous les groupes ethniques, de toutes les
religions, de tous les modes de vie"(Kenneth Jackson). En ce sens, New York est un laboratoire pour le
monde. Durant tout le XXème siècle, New York s’est distingué des autres capitales mondiales par sa
capacité à sans cesse inventer des solutions urbaines, politiques et sociales aux défis posés par
l’étroitesse et l’éparpillement de son territoire, l’ampleur et la diversité de l’immigration, la proximité
d’activités industrielles et intellectuelles, ou encore l’éclatement administratif. Du quadrillage de 1811 aux
partenariats public/privé en passant par la politique du carreau cassé, les solutions imaginées par les
New-Yorkais et leurs élus ont fait école tant aux Etats-Unis que dans le reste du monde. A l’heure où son
statut est contesté par de nouvelles métropoles, la ville est-elle encore en mesure d’imaginer de nouveaux
paradigmes susceptibles de lui permettre de conserver son rang ?
(in English)
2- Lectures on the forthcoming translation Le combat pour les Juifs soviétiques under the
title “Let my People Go!” The Transnational Politics of Soviet Jewish Emigration during the
Cold War (Holmes & Meier, published with the support of the CNL (French Ministry of Culture) and the
Fondation pour la mémoire de la Shoah)
Genealogy of an unlikely success: Soviet Jewish emigration, a human rights objective for the
United States during the Cold War
In the midst of détente, the US Congress adopted human rights legislation that impacted the Soviet
Union’s internal policy. The Jackson-Vanik amendment, which is still in force today, linked the extension of
US economic advantages to the Soviet Union to the liberalisation of its emigration policy. From then on,
the issue of Soviet Jewish emigration remained high on the agenda of US-Soviet relations until the end of
the Cold War. Why did Soviet Jews’ right to emigrate prevail on the American political agenda over many
other possible human rights issues relating to the Soviet Union? Also, how could a human rights concern
relating to the Soviet Union emerge at a time of rapprochement vis-à-vis Moscow? This presentation will
show how after a 15-year maturation, a concern of the Jewish community became a human rights goal
for American activists, and later for the US Congress, and the Carter and Reagan Administrations.
The action of Nativ’s emissaries in the United States: a trigger for the American movement to
aid Soviet Jews, 1958-1974
Based on interviews with former Israeli emissaries in the U.S., this presentation discloses the Hebrew
state’s action to trigger a human rights campaign on behalf of Soviet Jews in America. It shows how
“Nativ”, a secret office created in 1952 to provoke Soviet Jewish immigration to Israel, was able to raise
the sensitivity of American progressive intellectuals and politicians to the plight of Soviet Jews and to
activate the solidarity of the American Jewish community with its Soviet brethren. It argues that Nativ’s
emissaries succeeded in framing Soviet Jewish emigration as a human rights concern, that they were
If you would like to invite this author, please fill out the application form and email it to:
Anne-Sophie Hermil, Tel: 212 439 1467 |[email protected]
“AUTHORS ON TOUR” PROGRAM - NON-FICTION LIST — 2011
greatly influential in putting this issue on the political agenda of the United States, and were indirectly
responsible for the adoption of the Jackson-Vanik amendment, a major foreign policy change running
counter to Nixon’s détente.
3) Lectures on the Affaire Dreyfus’ secret files
The Secret File of the Dreyfus Affair –Rediscovery, Controversy and Reflections upon a Long
Silence
The Dreyfus Affair started with the communication, behind closed doors, of a “secret file” to the judges of
the first Martial Court in 1894, in order to obtain the condemnation of the innocent captain. From 1898
onward, the file was expanded and disappeared in a mass of hundreds of additional documents; the
original content of the accusatory file was forgotten. It is still imperfectly known today. Through rigorous
research in the military archives, however, one can reconstitute the secret file and show that most of its
documents were drawn from correspondence of a homoerotic nature between the German and the Italian
military attachés based in Paris. What was the role of this homosexual correspondence? How does this
reconstitution help us better penetrate the motivations and tactics of the accusation? How can one explain
the silence and embarrassment of historians?
Antisemitism and Homophobia in the Dreyfus Affair
In the absence of any conclusive evidence against Dreyfus, why did the military decide to use a
homoerotic correspondence between the German and the Italian military attachés to suggest that Dreyfus
was guilty? Dreyfus was indeed attacked and condemned as a Jew. But, without taking into account
homophobia, it is impossible to make sense of the mechanism leading from the interception of the
correspondence between the two military attachés to Dreyfus’ condemnation. These two ideologies of
hatred and exclusion, which echoed one another formally, functioned together and were largely
amalgamated.
If you would like to invite this author, please fill out the application form and email it to:
Anne-Sophie Hermil, Tel: 212 439 1467 |[email protected]