Not like us

It is a common experience for Americans traveling in Europe to discover that the cultural icons of the United States have followed them across the Atlantic. On the billboards are Michael Jordan and Arnold Schwarzenegger, on the television are Seinfeld and Friends, and on the radio are Garth Brooks and Madonna. Much has been written about the influence of McDonald's or about the "Coca-colonization" of the world, but in Not Like Us, the eminent historian Richard Pells examines the more subtle and intriguing interplay between America and Europe in the decades since the end of World War II. In a masterful analysis of the past fifty years, Pells describes how the cultures on each side of the Atlantic have transformed one another, and he reveals the reasons why the Europeans never became truly "Americanized" and why it was a good thing that they didn't.

First sentence: During the first half of the twentieth century, according to the conventional wisdom, the United States was a minor and fitful participant in the planet's crises, a force to be reckoned with only because of its economic dynamism.

Year

1997

Language

English

Publisher

Basic Books

Editions

1

Pages

496

ISBN

9780465001637

Data source: Wikidata