Not Like Us: How Europeans Have Loved, Hated, and Transformed American Culture Since World War II [Hardcover]

Richard H. Pells (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0465001645 | ISBN-13: 978-0465001644 | Publication Date: May 1997 | Edition: 1st

It is commonplace today to assume that American culture drives global culture, but what is not immediately clear, yet no less true, is that despite the Marshall Plan, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, EuroDisney and "Baywatch," Europe has been able to preserve its cultural distinctiveness and resist embracing the "American way of life." Richard Pells not only shows how the Europeans resisted and altered American culture to fit their own needs and tastes, but how Americans were as attracted to Europe's fashions and consumer goods as Europeans were influenced by America's technology and mass entertainment. The issues he discusses continue to resonate today, as Americans and Europeans alike face the problem of how to enjoy the benefits of a global culture and economy while maintaining their attachments to local, regional and national institutions. With its rich historical narrative and astute cultural observations, "Not Like Us" provides a new paradigm for understanding the survival of local and national cultures in a global setting."The details are fascinating, the insights unfailingly illuminating. This is serious history at its entertaining best."--Allen J. Matusow, Rice University

"A bold, beautifully written account of the impact (and surprising limits) of Hollywood and burger King, the Marshall Plan and Disneyland, on Western Europeand the great world beyond."--David M. Oshinsky, Rutgers University

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"The Europeans could never understand the American fixation with showers and toilets. Or how these could become a test of whose civilization was superior." Could it possibly be true, Richard Pells continues, "that sitting on the pot might be more exhilarating, and more ennobling, than trudging through Chartres or Notre Dame?"

Not the whole of Pell's cogent investigation of America's attempt to "Americanize" Europe is so merry. But it consistently displays his vast knowledge acquired both as a historian and a frequent resident abroad. Pells comes at his theme from a variety of angles: a chronological treatment before 1945 that sweeps through the cold war years; a chilling discussion of Hitler's impact on the shifting balance of cultural power between Europe and the U.S.; a look at Europe's resistance in the '90s to mass culture; and Hollywood's impact on the European film industry.

What is happening to "us," as we morph into a global culture, whose landmarks, alas, pock the globe with golden arches, Disney detritus, and NikeTowns? Pells notes, refreshingly, that "for many Americans, the effects of American's mass culture and its global economy are even more unsettling within the United States."

Highly engaging and employing a conversational tone, Not Like Us weaves history, theory, vibrant examples, and the comments of such expatriate writers as Mary McCarthy and James Baldwin. It will engage any reader seeking some kind of reason for the relentless vulgarization of the globe. --Hollis Giammatteo --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Library Journal

Pells (The Liberal Mind in a Conservative Age, Univ. Pr. of New England, 1989) explores here the cultural relationship between the United States and Europe since World War II. We see Europe at first viewing the United States as an isolationist cultural backwater, then as a superpower that liberated and rebuilt the Continent, and, finally, as a dominant economic and cultural influence experienced through a flood of American films, television and print media, consumer goods, and tourists since the end of the war. Pells convincingly argues that even with this onslaught, Europe has successfully retained its collection of distinct cultures. The author even highlights areas where Europe has influenced the United States, most notably regarding performance automobiles and entertainment. Pells's book has particular value as the United States struggles to find a place on the Continent in light of the European unification movement. Recommended for academic libraries.?Robert J. Favini, Bentley Coll. Lib., Waltham, Mass.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 444 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; 1st edition (May 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465001645
• ISBN-13: 978-0465001644
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,303,300 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Texas in Austin. I specialize in 20th century American cultural history, with a special focus on the impact of American culture on other countries. I have received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, as well as 6 Fulbright chairs and senior lectureships. I have lived and lectured all over Europe, as well as in Turkey, Southeast Asia, Australia, Mexico, and Brazil. It was these experiences living abroad that stimulated my interest in how America affected other people's cultures, and how foreign cultures affected America. These themes are particularly emphasized in my most recent two books: Not Like Us and Modernist America. My books have been reviewed in Newsweek, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the New Republic. I also contribute articles regularly to magazines and newspapers including the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Los Angeles Times, and the International Herald Tribune. I am now at work on a book called War Babies, about the generationof Americans born between 1939 and 1945 and their influence on American culture and politics from the 1950s to the present.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging and comprehensive, November 22, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Not Like Us: How Europeans Have Loved, Hated, And Transformed American Culture Since World War II (Paperback)

Although I found this book a bit wordy, Pells left nothing out. If not sure about the situation between America and Europe after WWII to the present, you will be after reading this book. Background knowledge would be helpful, but not necessary. The length should not turn away readers either, because it turns out to be a quick read. A very informative and comprehensive study and a must read for anyone interested in globalization in the twentieth century.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Read, July 25, 2003

By 

"lindsey835" (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Not Like Us: How Europeans Have Loved, Hated, And Transformed American Culture Since World War II (Paperback)

For those not fortunate enough to attend Richard Pell's classes at the University of Texas, this book is the next best thing. A comprehensive account of the relationship between history and culture. Insightful examination of the effect of not only globalization, but "Americanization" on today's modern world.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars all encompassing, August 25, 2005

By 

Susla (Lully (VD), Switzerland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Not Like Us: How Europeans Have Loved, Hated, And Transformed American Culture Since World War II (Paperback)

As a Texan who first moved to Europe at age 13 in 1961, Pell's book was like reading the story of my life. And yet it made me understand so many things that were always something of a conundrum (such as why the French looked down on everything American in general but adored the Kennedy's) to the sinister goings-on of the McCarthy era (they actually burned books considered subversive in American embassies abroad, such as "works by notorious radicals like Mark Twain and Theodore Dreiser"). I got this book because I wanted to have a better understanding of why the U.S. is where it is today, and it more than filled the bill, in an all-emcompassing way. Thank you, Mr. Pells.