Even Englishmen favorably disposed toward Americans said that the qualities they found most attractive in them were those ordinarily associated with children: their “childlike desire to talk,” their vigor and impulsiveness, their open-handed generosity and friendliness, and their “amusing” lack of inhibitions. “I like them,” said a young Mass-Observation correspondent, “but not in the way I like the French—as an equal—but in the way a fond parent likes his children.”
