Bibliograph

How the world was won, the Americanization of everywhere, Peter Conrad

Type

Label

How the world was won, the Americanization of everywhere, Peter Conrad

Language

eng

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

How the world was won

Oclc number

885444496

Responsibility statement

Peter Conrad

Sub title

the Americanization of everywhere

Summary

Exploring America's influence on the world from an international perspective, the author, drawing on his impressive cultural skills to assess, surprise, invigorate and delight, looks at the wars, politics, movies, music, clothes, foods, novels, paintings and more that have shaped the worldOn the day after 9/11, foreign newspapers ran headlines announcing "We Are All Americans Now." Though the sentiment was not new, it was also not quite the same as when Henry Luce announced in 1941, the inauguration of what he called "the American Century, " during which the US was to raise all men "from the level of the beasts to what the Psalmist calls a little lower than angels." When America suddenly emerged as a global power in the postwar period, the world<U+0127> with pockets of resistance from France, Russia, and Japan in particular<U+0127> was happy to be remade in the US image. America dazzled, and sometimes intimidated, older, staler, less innovative cultures. The affluence it placed on display was something to which most other countries aspired, and it was this fantasy that helped win the Cold War. Fast forward to today and the Chinese state news agency Xinhua, days before a possible financial default by the US government, calling for a de-Americanized world. A context for Peter Conrad's grand tale is, inevitably, politics, war, and commerce, but for the most part he draws on his brilliant repertoire of cultural skills to assess, surprise, invigorate, and delight us with his kaleidoscopic presentation of the movies and music, jeans and sneakers, food and refrigerators, novels and paintings that have shaped so much of the world in our lifetimes.--, Provided by Publisher

Table Of Contents

Looking to America -- A Coming of Age -- 'The Meaning of America' -- 'Have We Any Friends?' -- Prosperity or Tragedy -- 'Master of the Earth' -- American Girls in Italy and Elsewhere -- Free-Enterprise Art -- Americanophilia -- On the Roads -- 'Americanize Yourselves!' -- Little America -- Astronauts and Assassins -- 'I Want it to Come HERE!' -- Neither Americas -- B-Day and Other Invasions -- Dialogues with Consumer Products -- The Campaign to Free America -- 'Why Do They Hate Us?' -- 'Thanks America'

Classification

Creator