Americanization and Anti-americanism : : The German Encounter with American Culture after 1945 / / ed. by Alexander Stephan.

• MitwirkendeR: Bathrick, David,; Berghahn, Volker R.,; Berman, Russell A.,; Elsaesser, Thomas,; Ermarth, Michael,; Fehrenbach, Heide,; Fluck, Winfried,; Greiner, Bernd,; Hake, Sabine,; Hermand, Jost,; Kroes, Rob,; Maase, Kaspar,; Miller, Bowman H.,; Pells, Richard,; Stephan, Alexander,; Voigt, Karsten D.,
• HerausgeberIn: Stephan, Alexander,
• Place / Publishing House: New York; , Oxford : : Berghahn Books, , [2004]; ©2004
• Year of Publication: 2004
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (256 p.)

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."

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- PART 1: POLITICS OF CULTURE -- Anti-Americanism and Americanization -- Counter-Americanism and Critical Currents in West German Reconstruction 1945-1960: The German Lesson Confronts the American Way of Life -- Saigon, Nuremberg, and the West: German Images of America in the Late 1960s -- PART 2: POPULAR CULTURE -- Resisting Boogie-Woogie Culture, Abstract Expressionism, and Pop Art: German Highbrow Objections to the Import of “American” Forms of Culture, 1945-1965 -- From Nightmare to Model? Why German Broadcasting Became Americanized -- Learning from America: Reconstructing “Race” in Postwar Germany -- PART 3: FILM -- Cinematic Americanization of the Holocaust in Germany: Whose Memory Is It? -- Anti-Americanism and the Cold War: On the DEFA Berlin Films -- German Cinema Face to Face with Hollywood: Looking into a Two-Way Mirror -- PART 4: EUROPEAN AND GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES -- Double Crossings: The Reciprocal Relationship between American and European Culture in the Twentieth Century -- Anti-Americanism and Anti-Modernism in Europe: Old and Recent Versions -- California Blue: Americanization as Self-Americanization -- Awkward Relations: American Perceptions of Europe, European Perceptions of America -- PART 5: OUTLOOK -- Crisis or Cooperation? The Transatlantic Relationship at a Watershed -- Germans and Americans: Understanding and Managing Change -- Bibliography -- Contributors -- Index