André Fougeron's (1913–1998) painting Atlantic Civilization (1953), which adorns the cover of the volume (and can be seen on the Tate's website) could serve as an iconic image of Franco-American relations from the nineteenth century to at least the middle of the Cold War. The painting mingles social critique with caricature, the serious with the silly. In a series of striking, if burlesque, figures, Fougeron presents an impressive array of French dissatisfactions with Americans, as well as with their own government's obsequiousness during the Yankee postwar occupation. At the center of the canvas is a gigantic automobile which vaguely resembles an Oldsmobile with an armed German soldier emerging from the roof. Next to the car is a subservient, overweight French politician acquiescing to the American desire to rearm Germany. His corpulence contrasts with the thinness of the elderly, possibly homeless, French couple on a bench. Younger people peer out from an air-raid shelter made necessary by American saber rattling. Children play in pollution caused by factories belching smoke, factories doubtlessly financed in part by American industrialists. A marble pedestal serves as the base for an electric chair evoking the recent execution (1953) of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg for spying against the United States. The lazy soldier with a girlie magazine alludes to the unwanted and often dangerous presence of the American military on French soil, while the black boy shining shoes references American racism. Less overtly anti-American, the image of the H.L.M. (habitation à loyer moderé) recalls the urgent need for cheap housing after the war to shelter French citizens displaced by Allied bombings. A poster on the wall to the right, coupled with the coffins and the dead child in the arms of a woman of color, recall France's recent colonial misadventures.

While the French griefs against l'Amérique may not be completely justified, they are at least open to discussion. But the presentation here is so lacking in nuance as to preclude any reaction other than rejection or acceptance. Elements not presented in the painting are references to the causes of American displeasure with the French.