After their first few weeks in the United States had brought them in contact with the country's day-to-day realities, the travelers began to go beyond the most superficial impressions. Through personal experiences at the hotel or in the street, on the occasion of a train trip or a Sunday in the park, a certain less fragmented and even relatively coherent image of the organization of American life began to emerge.

The exotic character of American life gradually became intelligible, as did the awareness of how it differed from French life.

These few lines by André Chevrillon bespeak the widespread feelings of French people who had the opportunity to experience the way of life of the United States first-hand.

Remarks of this kind can be grouped together under a few major headings that summarize the dominant impressions. The first is unquestionably the industrialization of everyday life that repelled most observers; the second had to do with the strange leisure activities of the population, and with the fact that the organization of leisure was by no means incompatible with the constant pursuit of efficiency. On the basis of these observations, the French could ask their questions about the quality of the American Way of Life [in English in the original].