History 1BB3: America and the World: The Twentieth Century

Dr. Stephen M. Streeter

McMaster University, Winter 2002

 

Tutorial 6

Understanding Causes and Consequences: The "Americanization" of Europe

Introduction:

Drawing a link between cause and consequence in history is no easy matter. How do we know when an event arises from a particular cause? In this tutorial, you will examine how American culture influenced Western Europe during the Cold War. The author of the background reading suggests that the United States deliberately created an empire that Europeans welcomed. The first source explains how and why the United States exported its culture in the 1950s. The second source discusses how Europeans reacted to "Americanization."

Background Reading:

Geir Lundestad, "American Empire by Invitation" in Thomas G. Paterson and Robert J. McMahon, eds. The Origins of the Cold War (1991), pp. 110-18

Sources:

1. Reinhold Wagnleitner, "Propagating the American Dream: Cultural Policies as Means of Integration" (1986)
2. Richard Pells, Not Like Us: How Europeans Have Loved, Hated, and Transformed American Culture Since World War II (1997), pp. 235-62

Discussion Questions:

1. According to Wagnleitner, what instruments did the U.S. government devise to export its culture before and after World War II?
2. According to Pells, how have Europeans received American culture?
3. Can you draw a connection between the export of American culture and its reception in Europe? Do these readings support Lundestad's thesis of "empire by invitation?"

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