Verified Document

Who's Afraid Of Americanization  Essay

Americanized Cultures Is the world becoming ineluctably American? This anxious thought has taken off and occasioned substantial discussion in the twenty-first century. But in some sense, asking the question betrays a species of anti-Americanism already. I hope by examining the arguments of three writers who claim that Americanization is rampant and unstoppable -- Mark Rice-Oxley, Vicente Verdu, and Brendon O'Connor -- to show that their anxiety is overstated. Their concerns about America's present military and cultural ubiquity should be contextualized within history itself.

Mark Rice-Oxley's view of Americanization is largely cultural. He notes that "as the unrivaled global superpower, America exports its culture on an unprecedented scale. From music to media, film to fast food, language to literature and sport, the American idea is spreading inexorably, not unlike the influence of empires that preceded it" (Rice-Oxley 2004). Yet there are a number of assumptions underlying this view of encroaching Americanization that deserve to be examined more closely. For a start, does being the "unrivaled global superpower" automatically make American culture attractive to the far-flung global subalterns? If anything, it might increase the level of resistance in certain quarters. We might note that when Alexander the Great conquered the whole of the near east, and essentially made...

Over two thousand years later, the end result is that the Hebrew language still records a word for heretical thinking ("apikoros") that derives from the mainstream Greek thought of the Hellenistic world (i.e., Epicurus). In other words, Jewish religion and culture was sufficiently adversarial to resist one empire -- are we really intended to believe that all cultures today are somehow more susceptible to the charms of an imperial hegemony?
Rice-Oxley's claims of an "unrivaled global superpower" form the centerpiece of Brendon O'Connor's examination of anti-Americanism. For O'Connor, "criticisms of America's use of its military and political power have continued beyond the end of the Cold War and remain a major source of what is often labeled anti-Americanism. The key difference in these current foreign policy debates and conflicts is that the Soviet Union no longer exists as an alternative pole or source of support" (O'Connor 84). In other words, this suggests that American cultural influence proceeds, as it were, from the barrel of a gun, and that the pace and scope of it are determined by the lack of any military rivals to America on a similar scale. Yet the proper response to O'Connor would be to consider what was happening during the Cold War before the fall of the Soviet Union: in that time period, there certainly was plenty of principled European opposition to America's military actions in Vietnam, but it was not accompanied by a wholehearted embrace of Soviet culture. In cultures that produced sharp critiques of American militarism, like France or Sweden, there were not also filmmakers like Godard or Bergman who wholeheartedly embraced Socialist Realism in their filmmaking, and devoted…

Sources used in this document:
Works Cited

O'Connor, Brendon. "A Brief History of Anti-Americanism: From Cultural History to Terrorism." Australasian Journal of American Studies 23:1 (July 2004): 77-92. Web. Accessed 6 March 2014 at: http://www.anzasa.arts.usyd.edu.au/a.j.a.s/Articles/1_04/OConnor.pdf

Rice-Oxley, M. "In 2,000 Years, Will The World Remember Disney Or Plato?." 15 Jan 2004. Christian Science Monitor. Web. Accessed 6 March 2014 at: http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0115/p16s02-usfp.html

Verdu, Vicente. "We Are All Americans." El Pais. 27 April 2002. Web. Accessed 6 March 2014 at: http://www.worldpress.org/Europe/590.cfm
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

America "Great Americans Worked With Unselfish Devotion
Words: 1918 Length: 6 Document Type: Essay

America "Great Americans worked with unselfish devotion toward one goal, that is, to use the power of the myriad of peoples in the service of America's freedom. They made it their guiding principle. In this we are the same; we must also fight for an America where a man should be given unconditional opportunities to cultivate his potentialities and to restore him to his rightful dignity." ~ Carlos Bulosan The United States

English-Language Dramas and Soap Operas
Words: 1378 Length: 4 Document Type: Research Proposal

The long-term effects of such learning suggest that language skills and vocabulary are also retained longer when learned in a context other than pure ESL instruction (Song 2006). Both quantitative and qualitative data will be collected and analyzed as a part of this research study. Questionnaires with both closed and open response sections will be developed independently for students and ESL instructors, and administered electronically to those involved both in

History From 1865 to the Present Day.
Words: 3112 Length: 9 Document Type: Essay

history from 1865 to the present day. To focus the research, select six subtopics (specific events or developments related to the topic, separated in time); three from before 1930 and three from after. Immigrants There are more than 50 million immigrants (legal and illegal) and their U.S.-born children (under 18) in the United States as of August 2012. As of the last decade, most immigrants come from the following countries: Honduras

Iran Hostage Discussion Questions: Middle
Words: 5436 Length: 18 Document Type: Research Paper

Here, the British are implicated in a number of ways which are obvious and damning with respect to the fate of European Jewry in the coming years. 3. Examine the events in Palestine 1945 to 1948. Why, in your opinion did the United Nations propose the partition of Palestine? (2 pages) After World War II, when the full extent of the horrors of the Holocaust had become apparent to the global

Immigration and Society: Views From
Words: 3458 Length: 12 Document Type: Research Paper

Alien Nation is organized onto fifteen chapters, divided into three parts: (1) Introduction; Part I: Truth: (2) the View from the Tenth Circle; (3) the Pincers; (4) How Did it Happen? (5) Why Did it Happen? (6) So What? Part II: Consequences: (7) Immigration Has Consequences: Economics; (8) Immigration Has (More) Consequences: Economics II; (9) Immigration Has Consequences: Cultural, Social, Environmental...; (10) Immigration Has Consequences: Political Power; (11) Immigration Has Consequences: A

Early American History
Words: 645 Length: 2 Document Type: Term Paper

Sensibility and the American Revolution The book Sensibility and the American Revolution" by Sarah Knott is a look at the idea of sensibility as a movement and its relationship to United States history. The author follows the growth of the sensibility movement in America, defines the movement and its goals, and offers up rationale why it existed and grew in popularity. The author calls this movement a "sentimental project" (Knott 2009, 29),

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now