Semester

Fall

Date of Graduation

2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MA

College

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department

History

Committee Chair

James Siekmeier

Committee Co-Chair

Matthew Vester

Committee Member

Matthew Vester

Committee Member

Joseph Hodge

Abstract

This thesis explores how social dancing in the United States formed a noteworthy aspect of political, diplomatic, social, and class exchange for U.S. elites both domestically and overseas; and how the cultural dominance over dance that France enjoyed during this period created an informal cultural diplomatic relationship between the United States and France in the 1780s and the 1790s. I argue that U.S. elites utilized this dance culture as a form of upper-class status legitimation that could serve diplomatic purposes. This project increases the purview of U.S. cultural diplomatic studies by centering on the eighteenth century and by utilizing an expanded definition of diplomacy that incorporates analysis of cultural relations that were not directly funded by a state, but that nonetheless had a notable impact on a foreign culture. Furthermore, this study adds to the understudied field of dance history by exploring the cultural, political, social, and diplomatic significance the popular social dances of the period held for the elites who danced them.

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