Author Introduction

Transcript

The United States emerged from the Second World War the most powerful nation in the world on an economic, military, and social level. Unlike the European nations and many of the Asian nations, the United States emerged virtually unscathed physically from the horrors of the Second World War. More over, the expenditures of the war had eliminated the Great Depression, brought great prosperity, and enabled the United States to leap forward in terms of economic activity as compared to European nations.

Economically, the United States was at the top of the pyramid from 1945 to 1955, in part because it enjoyed such a competitive advantage with many of the European nations that were so physically devastated by the destructiveness of the war.

Second, in the aftermath of World War II there developed another war, a Cold War, a war of words and ideology and the conflicting systems of capitalism and communism. The Cold War elevated the United States to a position of stature, as it came to present the western democratic capitalistic nations against the Soviet Union and communism.

A third and final reason why the United States stood out in the second half of the 20th century is that American consumer capitalism became globalized. American products, American companies, and American values began to circulate around the world. Many nations began to purchase American commodities, to adopt American ways of life, to mimic American culture. Television played a role in this, as did the movies, in spreading American practices, ideas, values, and themes all over the world. All of this made for a dominant America in the world but also, of course, at the same time made people resent the United States for being so powerful, influential, and destructive of their own cultural values and traditions.

Yes, it was an American age but too many Americans came to presume that what was good for America was necessarily good for the rest of the world. And many people around the world came to realize that distinction.