Unmasking Americanization: De Grazia’S Irresistible Market Empire Advancing Through Twentieth Century Europe: Review Article
Prometheus, Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 101-115, March 2006
16 Pages Posted: 25 Aug 2009 Last revised: 21 Sep 2009
Date Written: 2006
Abstract
Victoria de Grazia’s book (Irresistible Empire. America’s Advance through 20th-Century Europe) is at the centre of two related debates in innovation studies. First, the array of books, articles and symposia with ‘varieties of capitalism’ and ‘trajectories of capitalism’ in their titles reveals the strong position of those who aim to revise the broad claims about globalization and homogenizing. This involves an examination of the geo-historical roles of nations and regions. Second, in the post-Cold War era there is a strong re-assessment of the extent to which Americanization through military, cultural and economic colonization created hegemony. We discuss the way de Grazia attempts to confront both debates with her bold and rich narrative about the irresistible Americanization of European consumption from the early 1920s into the late 1980s. Our critical review contrasts the three contested views on the Americanization of global social and political space, the global hegemony proposition, and the emergence and evolution of the European Consumer.
Keywords: Americanization, consumption
JEL Classification: B25, P10
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation