Cornell University Press The American Century in Europe

The notion of an American Century has fallen out of favor in recent years―historians prefer to focus on the United States as part of a transatlantic community. The contributors to this volume edited by R. Laurence Moore and Maurizio Vaudagna seek to understand how the exercise of American power was in crucial ways shaped and limited by the historic ties of the United States to Europe. They evaluate the impact of the "American Century" (as publisher Henry R. Luce named it in 1941) from Woodrow Wilson's dream of a new world order, to Cold War economic policies, to more recent American cultural imperialism and its immediate descendent, American-led globalization.The American Century in Europe gathers an international group of scholars who explore the ways twentieth-century American power (diplomatic, cultural, and economic) has been felt across the Atlantic. The authors demonstrate that the American Century was marked less by American hegemony than by reciprocal influence between the United States and Europe. The scale of American wealth certainly guaranteed influence abroad, but as the essays demonstrate, the American thirst for trade just as surely opened America's borders to cultures from around the world. Review "This is a timely book. American power and hegemony and the country's influence on transatlantic relations are very much under discussion again." Author: Betty Brandon, University of South Alabama Source: The Journal of American History "The American Century in Europe makes a genuine contribution to at least two areas of great interest: relations between the United States and Europe in the twentieth century and what has come to be called the 'internationalization' of American history." Author: Eric Foner, Dewitt Clinton Professor of History, Columbia University "This volume offers no conclusions, but its contents helped this reviewer understand how we arrived at the current crisis in America's international standing. To the extent that the energy of the American Century has its source in a missionary zeal to bring American ideals and practices to the world, and in a conviction that the world will only be safe if America dominates it, history helps account for where the Bush administration has led us." Author: Richard F. Kuisel, Georgetown University, American Historical Review, April 2004 About the Author R. Laurence Moore is Howard A. Newman Professor of American Studies and History at Cornell University and the author of five books, including Selling God: American Religion in the Marketplace of Culture. Maurizio Vaudagna is Professor of History at the University of Turin (Italy) and widely published in Italy.