Freezing in the Shadow of America

Abstract Using articles published during the 1960s in the frozen-food trade journal La Surgélation , this study examines how French frozen-food professionals viewed American innovation and growth and, in the process, analyzed their own economy and society. Two principal conclusions are drawn. First, these articles challenge conventional narratives about Americanization. While acknowledging American innovation, France's frozen-food entrepreneurs did not view the United States as the sole source of modernity. Rather, they emphasized France's own contributions to industrial refrigeration, asserting that their country could be both traditional and modern. This finding in turn highlights the constructed and contested nature of national identity. French identity is neither monolithic nor fixed but rather in constant evolution as various groups assert their own definitions.