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. 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. 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.

History

Rydell, Robert W.

Kroes, Rob

Americas

University of Chicago Press

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. 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. 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.

Immigration and ethnicity have long been staples of American history and literature, yet ethnicity has rarely been explored as the complex process of acculturation and adaptation that it is. In an adept combination of theoretical analysis and narrative, Rob Kroes presents the story of Amsterdam, Montana, a small, century-old village in the Gallatin Valley. Through extensive use of archival material, interviews with community members, and several months of first-hand experience living there, Kroes depicts the village's struggles for survival, its development as an "American" community, and, most important, its ability to maintain a strong Dutch ethnicity and culture through its ties to the Christian Reformed church. The reader sees the community as a whole as it moves through time, developing its many forms of accommodation to the surrounding American environment. There is a pervasive sense of the religion-based internal stratification and strife which, in the end, have served to draw the community more closely together as a solidly ethnic enclave. Amsterdam, Montana, is in America, but not quite of it.

The Persistence of Ethnicity: Dutch Calvinist Pioneers in Amsterdam, Montana (Statue of Liberty Ellis Island)

University of Illinois Press

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.

If You've Seen One, You've Seen the Mall: EUROPEANS AND AMERICAN MASS CULTURE

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

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.

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.

Europe

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.

London 1975 1st (stated). 8vo., 174pp., index. VG in VG DJ.

Soldiers and students: A study of right- and left-wing radicals (International library of sociology)

Routledge & K.Paul

Soldiers and Students: A Study of Right- and Left-Wing Radicals (Routledge Revivals)

Sociology

Routledge

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Books by Kroes, Rob

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Kroes, Rob. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Buffalo Bill in Bologna: The Americanization of the World, 1869-1922

Buffalo Bill in Bologna: The Americanization of the World, 1869-1922

The Persistence of Ethnicity: Dutch Calvinist Pioneers in Amsterdam, Montana (Statue of Liberty Ellis Island)

If You've Seen One, You've Seen the Mall: EUROPEANS AND AMERICAN MASS CULTURE

Them and Us: Questions of Citizenship in a Globalizing World

If You've Seen One, You've Seen the Mall: EUROPEANS AND AMERICAN MASS CULTURE

Them and Us: Questions of Citizenship in a Globalizing World

Soldiers and students: A study of right- and left-wing radicals (International library of sociology)

Soldiers and students: A study of right- and left-wing radicals (International library of sociology)

Soldiers and Students: A Study of Right- and Left-Wing Radicals (Routledge Revivals)