How France Shaped Three Powerful American Women - by Debra Ollivier

Long before French women became the marketing phenomenon they are today, American women of all stripes quietly made their way to France and were shaped on a deep level by their experiences abroad. They returned to America imbued with, as Alice Kaplan put it, "a kind of confidence in themselves that they might not have gotten at home."

Kaplan is a professor of French at Yale University and the author of several books, including the recently released Dreaming in French: The Paris Years of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, Susan Sontag, and Angela Davis. In this brilliantly written and well-researched book, Kaplan explores the lives of three radically different, influential American women who had an enduring bond with France -- and vice-versa.

For more: Debra Ollivier: How France Shaped Three Powerful American Women