Abstract

The “war” in question is World War II. Beauvoir's two major travelogues, America Day by Day and The Long March, chronicle her first visit to the United States, for four months in 1947, and her 1955 trip to China. Their juxtapositions reveal Beauvoir's keen perceptive powers, her feminist proclivities, and her commitment to a philosophy of freedom. While much, though not all, of her description of the United States would be quite recognizable today, the Communist China of those early years is in many important respects unrecognizable (which may make The Long March all the more interesting). This chapter summarizes some key points from each book and, as an incidental but significant reflection of the climate, particularly the racial, political, and intellectual climate of the times, points out some notable omissions from the first published English translation of Beauvoir's account of “her” America.