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Historians have often argued that American intellectuals in the 1920s were not interested in politics and that it was not until the Great Depression and the rise of Stalinism that they became politically committed. This article focuses on Waldo Frank, an intellectual who, like John Dos Passos, seems to contradict these stereotypes. Frank was very much interested in what was going on in Europe, culturally, but also politically. He contributed regularly to the French review, Europe, addressing issues such as the cultural dependence of the US towards Europe, the need for America to create its own independent culture, the part intellectuals should play either in a capitalist or in a socialist society. His career testifies to the constant links that were developed by American and French intellectuals in the first part of the XXth century.