ABOUT THIS BOOK

This daring collaborative effort showcases dialogues between international scholars engaged with the United States from abroad. The writers investigate the analytic methods and choices that label certain talk, images, behaviors, and allusions as "American" and how to read the data on such material. The editors present the essays in pairs that overlap in theme or region. Each author subsequently comments on the other's work. A third scholar or team of scholars from a different discipline or geographic location then provides another level of analysis. Contributors: Andrzej Antoszek, Sophia Balakian, Zsófia Bán, Sabine Bröck, Ian Condry, Kate Delaney, Jane C. Desmond, Virginia R. Dominguez, Ira Dworkin, Richard Ellis, Guillermo Ibarra, Seyed Mohammad Marandi, Giorgio Mariani, Ana Mauad, Loes Nas, Edward Schatz, Manar Shorbagy, Kristin Solli, Amy Spellacy, and Michael Titlestad.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Virginia R. Dominguez is the Gutgsell Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is the author of several books including People as Subject, People as Object: Selfhood and Peoplehood in Contemporary Israel. Jane C. Desmond is professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is the author of Displaying Death/ Animating Life: Human-Animal Relations in Art, Science, and Everyday Life and several other books.

REVIEWS

"A fascinating, timely, and provocative intervention into current debates and discussions within the field of American Studies."--Nick Selby, editor of Comparative American Studies

"Lively and the format adds to the excitement and informative dialogue. The scholarship builds a depth and richness into the discussion and contributes to our understanding of a challenging set of questions."--Ida Susser, author of Norman Street: Poverty and Politics in an Urban Neighborhood

"An interesting, uniquely structured work . . . Highly recommended."--Choice

"Global Perspectives on the United States offers rich, interesting, innovative, and thought-provoking reflections on the process of assimilation, adaptation, and transformation of American values and cultural expressions, within different contexts. The book . . . shows the utility and complexity of constructivist approaches in international and social studies."--H-Net

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Cover

Title

Copyright

Contents

Acknowledgments

Prologue: Reading “America” Across and Against the Grain of Public Discourse / Jane C. Desmond

Introduction: The “American” Conundrum—Criticism, Attraction, and Antagonisms / Virginia R. Domínguez, with Sophia Balakian

PART I. WHOSE “AMERICA”? WHOSE “ANTI-AMERICANISM”?

1. Internationalizing African American Studies, Too: White (West-) German Responses to the Civil Rights Movement / Sabine Broeck

2. What We Talk about When We Talk about Anti-Americanism: An Italian Perspective / Giorgio Mariani

Second Look—Sabine Broeck on Giorgio Mariani

Second Look—Giorgio Mariani on Sabine Broeck

Third Look—Sophia Balakian on Mariani and Broeck—“Sticks and Stones: Discourses of Anti-Americanism as Name-Calling

PART II. HISTORIES OF ENGAGEMENTS: TWO CASE STUDIES LOOKING AT DOMESTIC CONSUMPTION AND THEIR CONTEXTS

3. Americanization and Anti-Americanism in Poland: A Case Study, 1945–2006 / Kate Delaney and Andrzej Antoszek

4. Americanization and Anti-American Attitudes in South Africa and Georgia: A Historical Snapshot from 2005 / Loes Nas

Second Look—Loes Nas on Kate Delaney and Andrzej Antoszek

Second Look—Sophia Balakian on Loes Nas

Third Look—Jane C. Desmond on Delaney & Antoszek and Nas—“Reversing the Vectors of Analysis: Calibrating the ‘Use Value’ of Discourses of ‘Americanism,’ ‘Americanization,’ and ‘Anti-Americanism’”

PART III. DEBATING THE TERMS OF DEBATE

5. Kefaya and the New Politics of Anti-Americanism / Manar Shorbagy

6. Understanding Anti-Americanism in Central Asia / Edward Schatz

Second Look—Manar Shorbagy on Edward Schatz

Second Look—Edward Schatz on Manar Shorbagy

Third Look—Seyed Mohammad Marandi on Schatz and Shorbagy—“What Is Anti-Americanism?”

Third Look—Ira Dworkin on Schatz and Shorbagy—“Thinking Outside of America: The State, the Street, and Civil Society”

PART IV. VISUAL ENGAGEMENTS AND THEIR INTERPRETATIONS

7. Lost and Found in Translation: Problems of Cultural Translation in Hungary after 1989 / Zsófia Bán

8. Westward Ho with Kholiwood: The Transnational Turn in the Neoliberal Marketplace / Richard Ellis

Second Look—Richard Ellis on Zsófia Bán

Second Look—Zsófia Bán on Richard Ellis

Third Look—Ana Mauad on Bán and Ellis—An Imagined Community for the Twenty-First Century?

PART V. DISRUPTING BINARIES: WHOSE “COUNTRY MUSIC” AND WHOSE “HIP-HOP”?

9. Tales of the West: “Americanization” in an Era of “Europeanization” / Kristin Solli

10. Japanese Rappers, 9/11, and Soft Power: Anti-American Sentiments in “American” Popular Culture / Ian Condry

Second Look—Ian Condry on Kristin Solli

Second Look—Kristin Solli on Ian Condry

Third Look—Michael Titlestad on Solli and Condry—“Dreaming America”

PART VI. IS IT “AMERICANIZATION” OR “PRO-AMERICANISM”? THE AMERICAS, PAN-AMERICANISM, AND IMMIGRATION

11. “Making Pals in Panama”: U.S.–Latin American Relations and the Trope of the Good Neighbor in Coca-Cola Advertising during the 1940s / Amy Spellacy

12. Americanism and Anti-Americanism of Mexican Immigrants in Los Angeles / Guillermo Ibarra

Second Look—Guillermo Ibarra on Amy Spellacy

Second Look—Amy Spellacy on Guillermo Ibarra

Third Look—Virginia R. Domínguez on Spellacy and Ibarra—“Not Just for Latin Americanists”

Contributors

Index