Biography
My specialization is Women and Gender; France; the Second World War. My most recent book concerns the politics of sex during the American presence in France during the Second World War. As the GIs conquered Normandy in the summer of 1944, they pursued their fantasies of having sex with French women. Such erotic contacts—including heterosexual sex, prostitution, and rape—became the focus of conflict and debate between the US military and French officials. As these debates occurred in newspapers and official correspondence, they anchored larger struggles for authority, including the breadth of American political power in Europe, and the moral role of the United States as a new global leader.
Education
Ph.D., Brown University
M.A., Sarah Lawrence College
B.A., Wesleyan University
Books
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Mary Lou Roberts. Sheer Misery Soldiers in Battle in WWII. University of Chicago Press, 2021. -
Mary Lou Roberts. D-Day through French Eyes: Memoirs of Normandy 1944. University of Chicago Press, 2014. -
Mary Lou Roberts. What Soldiers Do: Sex and the American GI in World War II France. University of Chicago Press, 2013. -
Mary Lou Roberts. Disruptive Acts: The New Woman in Fin-De-Siecle France. University of Chicago Press, 2002.
Selected Publications
- “The Leroy Henry Case: Sexual Violence and Allied Relations in Great Britain, 1944”, Journal of the History of Sexuality, 26,3 (Fall 2017), 403-423.
- “Beyond Crisis in Understanding Gender Transformation,” in “Rethinking Key Concepts in Gender History,” 28,2 (August 2016), 358-366.
- “The Epinal Project,” H-France Salon, June 2015.
- A film, “Le Repos des guerriers,” based on What Soldiers Do, (MAHA Productions, France) was released in Spring 2015.
- “Forum on What Soldiers Do: Sex and the American G.I. in World War Two France, 1944-1946,” Journal of Women’s History, Fall 2014.
- “A Conversation about European Women’s History,” Journal of Women’s History,25, 4 (Winter 2013):288-308.
- “A nous les petites Havraises !” l’Histoire, les collections, July 2012
- Co-Editor with Paul Friedland, Special issue of French Historical Studies, “Theorized History,” March 2012.
- “Out of their Orbit: Celebrity and Eccentricity in Nineteenth Century France,” The Question of Gender: Joan W. Scott’s Critical Feminism, eds. Judith Butler and Elizabeth Weed, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2011), 50-79.
- “The Price of Discretion: Prostitution, Venereal Disease and the American Military in France, 1944-1946,” American Historical Review, 115, no. 4 (October 2010):1002-1030.
- “Retinking Female Celebrity: The Eccentric Star in Nineteenth Century France,” Charisma, Fame, and Celebrity during the Long 19th Century, eds. Edward Berenson and Eva Giloi, (New York: Berghahn Books, 2010), 103-116.
- “The Silver Foxhole: Prostitution in Paris, 1944-1945,” French Historical Studies, 33: 1 (Winter 2010), 99-128.
Selected Awards
- George Louis Beer Prize, What Soldiers Do, Best Book in International History, American Historical Association, 2014
- Gilbert Chinard Prize, Society for French Historical Studies and the Institut Français d’Amerique, for What Soldiers Do, 2014
- Senior Fellowship, Institute for Research in the Humanities, 2010-2014
- Honorable Mention, Koren Prize, Society for French Historical Studies, 2011
- John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, 2007-2008
- Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award, 2008
Advisor To
History Courses
- History 120 – Europe & Modern World 1815-present
- History 200 – Twentieth Century as Lived Experience
- History 357 – The Second World War
- History 392 – Women in History
- History 600 – Women, Gender, & War in 20th Century
- History 891 – Rise & Fall of the Domestic Ideal
- History 891 – Gender & Race in European History
- History 891 – Sexuality Across National Boundaries