Americanization and Anti-americanism

The German Encounter with American Culture after 1945

Buch | Hardcover

256 Seiten

2004
Berghahn Books, Incorporated (Verlag)
978-1-57181-673-3 (ISBN)

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The ongoing discussions about globalization, American hegemony and September 11 and its aftermath have moved the debate about the export of American culture and cultural anti-Americanism to center stage of world politics. At such a time, it is crucial to understand the process of culture transfer and its effects on local societies and their attitudes toward the United States.

This volume presents Germany as a case study of the impact of American culture throughout a period characterized by a totalitarian system, two unusually destructive wars, massive ethnic cleansing, and economic disaster. Drawing on examples from history, culture studies, film, radio, and the arts, the authors explore the political and cultural parameters of Americanization and anti-Americanism, as reflected in the reception and rejection of American popular culture and, more generally, in European-American relations in the "American Century."

Alexander Stephan (1946-2009) was Professor of German, Ohio Eminent Scholar, and Senior Fellow of the Mershon Center for International Security Studies at Ohio State University, where he directed a project on American culture and anti-Americanism in Europe and the world.

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Alexander Stephan

PART I: THE POLITICS OF CULTURE

Chapter 1. Anti-Americanism and Americanization

Russell Berman

Chapter 2. Counter-Americanism and Critical Currents in West German Reconstruction 1945-1960: The German Lesson Confronts the American Way of Life

Michael Ermarth

Chapter 3. Saigon, Nuremberg, and the West: German Images of America in the Late 1960s

Bernd Greiner

PART II: POPULAR CULTURE

Chapter 4. Resisting Boogie-Woogie Culture, Abstract Expressionism, and Pop Art: German Highbrow Objections to the Import of "American" Forms of Culture, 1945-1965

Jost Hermand

Chapter 5. From Nightmare to Model? Why German Broadcasting Became Americanized

Kaspar Maase

Chapter 6. Learning from America: Reconstructing "Race" in Postwar Germany

Heide Fehrenbach

PART III: FILM

Chapter 7. Cinematic Americanization of the Holocaust in Germany: Whose Memory Is It?

David Bathrick

Chapter 8. Anti-Americanism and the Cold War: On the DEFA Berlin Films

Sabine Hake

Chapter 9. German Cinema Face to Face with Hollywood: Looking into a Two-Way Mirror

Thomas Elsaesser

PART IV: EUROPEAN AND GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

Chapter 10. Double Crossings: The Reciprocal Relationship between American and European Culture in the Twentieth Century

Richard Pells

Chapter 11. Anti-Americanism and Anti-Modernism in Europe: Old and Recent Versions

Rob Kroes

Chapter 12. California Blue: Americanization as Self-Americanization

Winfried Fluck

Chapter 13. Awkward Relations: American Perspectives on Europe, European Perspectives on America

Volker R. Berghahn

PART V: OUTLOOK

Chapter 14. Crisis or Cooperation? The Transatlantic Relationship at a Watershed

Karsten D. Voigt

Chapter 15. Germans and Americans: Understanding and Managing Change

Bowman H. Miller

Notes on Contributors

Bibliography

Index

Erscheint lt. Verlag	16.12.2004
Verlagsort	Herndon
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	603 g
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Zeitgeschichte
Themenwelt	Sozialwissenschaften
ISBN-10	1-57181-673-9 / 1571816739
ISBN-13	978-1-57181-673-3 / 9781571816733
Zustand	Neuware