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The Shock of America

Europe and the Challenge of the Century

David Ellwood

Oxford History of Modern Europe

Offers a new angle on contemporary European-US relations, relating cultural varieties to traditional forms of power over time
Provides an exceptionally wide-ranging survey of Europe's responses to the challenge of America's capacity for world-stirring innovation, including politics, economics, and popular culture
Richly documented with every form of primary and secondary source, including a long list of feature and documentary films from various epochs down to the present
Unique contribution to European and wider debates about 'Americanization' and 'anti-Americanism'
Sets today's debates over the evolution of US power in the world in a strong, multi-dimensional, historical framework
Covers Europe's three greatest military-political conflicts of the contemporary era: the Great War, World War II, and the Cold War

The Shock of America

Europe and the Challenge of the Century

David Ellwood

Oxford History of Modern Europe

Description

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.

The Shock of America

Europe and the Challenge of the Century

David Ellwood

Oxford History of Modern Europe

Introduction
Part I: 1898-1939
Prologue
1. How the American Century Started
2. The Roaring Twenties in Europe
3. Modernity and the European Encounter with Hollywood
4. The 1930s: Capitalism on Trial
5. New Deal America: The Flickering Beacon
Part II: 1941-1959
6. Our Destiny, Your Future
7. Responding to the World's Reformer
8. Progress Re-discovered? European Thinkers and America's Propositions in World War II
9. 'The Most Revolutionary Force': When American Armies Arrive...
10. Reflating Europe with the Marshall Plan
11. The 1950s: Going for Growth
Part III: 1989-2009
12. After the Cold War: The Age of 'Soft Power'
13. Epilogue: The End of the 'American Century'?
Conclusions

The Shock of America

Europe and the Challenge of the Century

David Ellwood

Oxford History of Modern Europe

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.

The Shock of America

Europe and the Challenge of the Century

David Ellwood

Oxford History of Modern Europe

Reviews and Awards

"This highly commendable addition to Oxford's History of Modern Europe series examines the US 'role as a model of modernity' for Europe from the late 19th century to the early 21st century. The author effectively marshals an impressive array of sources, conveniently footnoted, to support a wide-ranging examination of shifting European perspectives on the 'American Way.' Admirably written and convincingly argued. Essential."--CHOICE

"Ellwood's interpretation of American culture's vigor and innovation as a self-renovating soft power since World War II is consistently interesting."--The Journal of American History

"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

"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."--IAmerican Historical Review

The Shock of America

Europe and the Challenge of the Century

David Ellwood

Oxford History of Modern Europe

From Our Blog

America and the politics of identity in Britain

By David Ellwood 'The Americanisation of British politics has been striking this conference season,' declared The Economist last autumn. 'British politicians and civil servants love freebies to the US 'to see how they do things,'' reported Simon Jenkins in The Guardian in November.

Posted on March 15, 2014

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'Soft power' and the politics of influence

By David Ellwood As the use of military force to resolve disputes between nations becomes less plausible in most regions of the world, the struggle for influence intensifies.

Posted on January 9, 2014

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Why do the French insist on their 'cultural exception'?

By David Ellwood Is French culture exceptional, exceptionalist, or just... unique ? The question was raised again this year by the row which broke out just before the start of US-EU trade talks. The French government insisted that cultural products, particularly film and television, should be left out of the negotiations due to their special status as timeless acts of artistic creation.

Posted on September 25, 2013

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McDonald's revisited: when globalization goes native

By David Ellwood In January 2013 the Daily Telegraph ran a story on the refusal of the inhabitants of the famed old neighbourhood of Montmartre, in Paris, to accept the arrival in their midst for the first time of a Starbucks coffee shop. The Paris Pride heritage association denounced this "attack on the place's soul." A resident said "we must do everything to stop this disfiguring, as it opens the door to any old rubbish."

Posted on April 4, 2013

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Rethinking Europe: Do we need a European Community anymore?

By David Ellwood At first sight it looked like an incongruous debate for Edinburgh. The only debate dedicated to Europe included three unusual debaters. How to reconcile such different impulses and points of view?

Posted on August 23, 2012

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