Overview

The Shock of America is based on the proposition that whenever Europeans of the last 100 years or more contemplated those margins of their experience where change occurred, there, sooner or later, they would find America. How Europeans have come to terms over the decades with this dynamic force in their midst, and what these terms were, is the story at the heart of this text. Masses of Europeans have been enthralled by the real or imaginary prospects coming out of the USA. Important minorities were at times deeply upset by them. Sometime the roles were reversed or shaken up. But nobody could be indifferent for long. Inspiration, provocation, myth, menace, model: all these categories and many more have been deployed to try to cope with the Americans. Attitudes and stereotypes have emerged, intellectual resources have been mobilised, positions and policies developed; all trying to explain and deal with the kind of radiant modernity America built over the course of the twentieth century. David Ellwood combines political, economic, and cultural themes, suggesting that American mass culture has provided the United States with a uniquely effective link between power and influence over time. The book is structured in three parts; a separation based on the proposition that America's influence as an unavoidable force for or against innovation was visible most conspicuously after Europe's three greatest military-political conflicts of the contemporary era: the Great War, World War II, and the Cold War. It concludes with the emotional upsurge in Europe which greeted the arrival of Obama on the world scene, suggesting that in spite of all the disappointments and frictions of the years, the US still retained its privileged place as a source of inspiration for the future across the Western world.

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9780198778837

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Reviews

This is a central text for anyone who seeks to study Europe's fractured relationship with modernity or to understand the relationship between America and Western Europe in the modern world ... Its scope is massive, resting on the analysis of hundreds of scholarly works in at least four languages and drawing from substantial, wide-ranging, original research. * Martha L. Hildreth, American Historical Review * One could not ask for a clearer, better written synthesis ... Everyone will love David's thorough, entertaining, up-to-date coverage of American influence in Europe in the age of the internet. * David Culbert, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television * This is a book that will be of great interest to anyone who has been grappling with one of the most intriguing problems of the twentieth century. * Diplomatic History * David Ellwood ... took on the monumental task of writing a political history of the European response to America as the 'model of modernity'; the result is an excellent book. ... This is a remarkably dense, enlightening and wide-ranging book. * Kathleen Burk, History Today * It's a great book and should be a wonderful addition to any Modern Europe course syllabus ... and of course, to the bookshelf of any history buff. * Laura Hopkins, Goodreads * Ellwood's The Shock of America is a huge, ambitious and hugely enjoyable book, stuffed full of enough erudition and anecdote to last any undergraduate or graduate class for a whole term ... This is a book that will spark debate among historians and International Relations experts for years to come. * Glen O'Hara, International Affairs *

Ellwood's The Shock of America is a huge, ambitious and hugely enjoyable book, stuffed full of enough erudition and anecdote to last any undergraduate or graduate class for a whole term ... This is a book that will spark debate among historians and International Relations experts for years to come. Glen O'Hara, International Affairs It's a great book and should be a wonderful addition to any Modern Europe course syllabus ... and of course, to the bookshelf of any history buff. Laura Hopkins, Goodreads David Ellwood ... took on the monumental task of writing a political history of the European response to America as the 'model of modernity'; the result is an excellent book. ... This is a remarkably dense, enlightening and wide-ranging book. Kathleen Burk, History Today This is a book that will be of great interest to anyone who has been grappling with one of the most intriguing problems of the twentieth century. Diplomatic History One could not ask for a clearer, better written synthesis ... Everyone will love David's thorough, entertaining, up-to-date coverage of American influence in Europe in the age of the internet. David Culbert, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television This is a central text for anyone who seeks to study Europe's fractured relationship with modernity or to understand the relationship between America and Western Europe in the modern world ... Its scope is massive, resting on the analysis of hundreds of scholarly works in at least four languages and drawing from substantial, wide-ranging, original research. Martha L. Hildreth, American Historical Review

Author Information

David Ellwood is Senior Adjunct Professor of European and Eurasian Studies at The Johns Hopkins University's Paul H Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Bologna. His first major book was Italy 1943-1945: The Politics of Liberation (1985) then came Rebuilding Europe: Western Europe, America and Postwar Reconstruction (1992). The fundamental theme of his research - the function of American power in contemporary European history - has shifted over the years to emphasise cultural power, particularly that of the American cinema industry. He was President of the International Association of Media and History 1999-2004 and a Fellow of the Rothermere America Institute, Oxford, in 2006.

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