Search results for ""Author Rob Kroes""
University of Illinois Press If You've Seen One, You've Seen the Mall: EUROPEANS AND AMERICAN MASS CULTURE
The Dutch scholar Rob Kroes argues that American culture is "modular," continually fragmenting, disassembling, and reassembling itself--and in the process creating something new. In a series of topical essays that show why he is one of Europe's leading authorities on American culture, Kroes probes trends in American advertising, the image of the Vietnam war in American films, the implications of American vernacular culture as represented in rap music, and other topics.
£23.99
University Press of New England Prison Area Independence Valley
A major voice in transnational American studies addresses politics and culture in post-9/11 America
£37.35
University of Illinois Press Them and Us: Questions of Citizenship in a Globalizing World
At the dawn of the twenty-first century, all of us consider ourselves to be citizens of something-–but of what? Nation-states? Regions? Ethnic groups? Corporations? An accomplished set of meditations by one of Europe's leading Americanists, Them and Us is a rich comparative study of European and American cultural traditions and their influence on conceptions of community. In contrast with the ethnic and nationalist allegiances that historically have splintered Europe, Rob Kroes identifies a complex of cultural practices that have mitigated against ethnically rooted divisions in the United States. He argues that the American approach–-articulated by a national rhetoric emphasizing openness rather than closure, diversity rather than uniformity--has much to offer a Europe where the nationalist and ethnic conflicts that spawned two world wars continue to sow terror and destruction. Kroes discusses European and American attitudes toward the welfare state, the human rights tradition in the United States, and the role of regionalism in shaping conceptions of national identity. He also considers new, transnational forms of cultural membership that are emerging to take the place of nation-based citizenship. He contends that the frame of reference Europeans now use to make sense of their collective situation draws on ingredients provided by the worldwide dissemination of American mass culture. He investigates the way this emerging world culture, under American auspices, affects the way people in their local and national settings structure their sense of the past and conceive of their citizenship. Imagining a new set of cultural relationships that could serve as the basis for global citizenship, Them and Us is an insightful consideration of the types of solidarity that might weave humankind together into a meaningful community.
£33.30
Dartmouth College Press Prison Area Independence Valley
A major voice in transnational American studies addresses politics and culture in post-9/11 America
£32.41
The University of Chicago Press Buffalo Bill in Bologna: The Americanization of the World, 1869-1922
"Buffalo Bill in Bologna" reveals that the globalization of American mass culture that seems unstoppable today began as early as the mid-nineteenth century. In fact, by the end of World War I, the United States already boasted an advanced network of culture industries that served to promote American values. Robert W. Rydell and Rob Kroes narrate how the circuses, amusement parks, vaudeville, mail-order catalogs, dime novels, and movies that developed after the Civil War - tools central to hastening the reconstruction of the country - actually doubled as agents of American cultural diplomacy abroad. As symbols of America's version of the "good life," cultural products became a primary means for people around the world, especially in Europe, to reimagine both America and themselves in the context of America's growing global sphere of influence. Paying special attention to the role of the World's Fairs, the exporting of Buffalo Bill's "Wild West" show to Europe, the release of "The Birth of a Nation", and Woodrow Wilson's creation of the Committee on Public Information, Rydell and Kroes offer an absorbing tour through America's cultural expansion at the turn of the century. "Buffalo Bill in Bologna" is thus a tour de force that recasts what has been popularly understood about this period of American and global history.
£24.24
The University of Chicago Press Buffalo Bill in Bologna: The Americanization of the World, 1869-1922
When it comes to the production and distribution of mass culture, no country in modern times has come close to rivaling the success of America. From blue jeans in central Europe to Elvis Presley's face on a Republic of Chad postage stamp, the reach of American mass culture extends into every corner of the globe. Most believe this is a twentieth-century phenomenon, but here Robert W. Rydell and Rob Kroes prove that its roots are far deeper. Buffalo Bill in Bologna reveals that the process of globalizing American mass culture began as early as the mid-nineteenth century. In fact, by the end of World War I, the United States already boasted an advanced network of culture industries that served to promote American values overseas. Rydell and Kroes narrate how the circuses, amusement parks, vaudeville, mail-order catalogs, dime novels, and movies developed after the Civil War - tools central to hastening the reconstruction of the country - actually doubled as agents of American cultural diplomacy abroad. As symbols of America's version of the "good life," cultural products became a primary means for people around the world, especially in Europe, to reimagine both America and themselves in the context of America's growing global sphere of influence. Paying special attention to the role of the world's fairs, the exporting of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show to Europe, the release of The Birth of a Nation, and Woodrow Wilson's creation of the Committee on Public Information, Rydell and Kroes offer an absorbing tour through America's cultural expansion at the turn of the century.
£39.66
