Anti-Americanism in Twentieth-Century Europe

Bibliographic Data

ID8958249
AuthorsEgbert Klautke (0000-0002-3813-6806, University College London, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume54
Issue4
Pages1125-1139
Publication date2011-11-07
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Historical Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-246X • E-ISSN: 1469-5103
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0018246x11000276
OpenAlexW2166751908
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited31

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, European observers and commentators have frequently employed the term ‘Americanization’ to make sense of the astonishing rise of the USA to the status of a world power. More specifically, they used this term to describe the social changes brought about by industrialization and urbanization. In this context, European intellectuals have often used ‘America’ as shorthand for ‘modernity’; across the Atlantic, they believed, it was possible to learn and see the future of their own societies. Criticism of ‘the Americanization of Europe’ – or the world – easily led to outright anti-Americanism, i.e. a radical and reductionist ideology which held the USA responsible for the economic, political, or cultural ills of modern societies. The war in Iraq in 2003 and the alienation between the USA and France and Germany that followed provided a new impetus for studying the history of European perceptions of America. A large number of studies have since been published that deal with the history of the ‘Americanization of Europe’ and anti-Americanism, and several monographs, which are based on original research and promise new insights, will be the focus of this historiographical review

Americanization · Anti-Americanism · Context (archaeology · Criticism · Economic history · Historiography · Ideology · Modernity · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · American History and Culture · Anarchism and Radical Politics · European history and politics · History · Law

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