The Making of European Consumption: Facing the American Challenge

ISBN-13: 9781137374035 / Angielski / Twarda / 2015 / 256 str.

Per Lundin; Thomas Kaiserfeld

Opis

American ideals and models feature prominently in the master narrative of post-war European consumer societies. Some claim that the American way of life ultimately gained hegemony in Europe. The authors of this book assert that a crucial dimension is missing from the claim of American hegemony - namely, the realities of European power, and the often-complex actions taken by Europeans. In this volume, scholarship from different European countries demonstrates that Europeans maintained myriad views of America; Europeans did not appropriate a homogenous notion of America. The chapters illustrate how, by distinguishing between product and process innovations enables, patterns of appropriation become apparent. The contributors to this volume demonstrate that American elements - from models to practices to technologies - were more prominent in European process innovations than in product innovations. And, ultimately, post-war European consumption is best described as a process of selective appropriation -rather than the wholesale acceptance or rejection - of American ideals and models.

Spis treści

Introduction; Per Lundin 1. Negotiating American Modernity in Twentieth-century Europe; Mary Nolan 2. Americanization as Creolized Imagery: The Statue of Liberty During the Cold War; David Nye 3. Forging Europe's Foodways: The American Challenge; Karin Zachmann 4. Tackling Norwegian Cold: The Breakthrough of Home Freezing; Terje Finstad, Stig Kvaal, and Per Østby 5. Americanization and Authenticity: Italian Food Products and Practices in the 1950s and 1960s; Emanuela Scarpellini 6. Love and Hate in Industrial Design: Europe's Design Professionals and America in the 1950s; Kjetil Fallan 7. Confronting the Lure of American Tourism: Modern Accommodation in the Netherlands; Adri A. Albert de la Bruhèze 8. Exploring European Travel: The Swedish Package Tour; Thomas Kaiserfeld 9. Coping with Cars, Families, and Foreigners: Swedish Postwar Tourism; Per Lundin

O autorze

Adri A. Albert de la Bruhèze, University of Twente, the Netherlands Kjetil Fallan, University of Oslo, Norway Terje Finstad, Norwegian University of Science and Technology Stig Kvaal, Norwegian University of Science and Technology Mary Nolan, New York University, USA David Nye, University of Southern Denmark Per Østby, Norwegian University of Science and Technology Emanuela Scarpellini, University of Milan, Italy Karin Zachmann, Technical University of Munich, Germany