Why the American century? / Olivier Zunz
- Bib ID:
- 542675
- Format:
- Book
- Author:
- Zunz, Olivier
- Description:
-
- Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1998
- xvi, 254 p. ; 24 cm.
- ISBN:
- 0226994619 (alkaline paper) (cloth)
- Summary:
-
Ever since Henry Luce, the publisher of Tims and Life, proclaimed in 1941 that the twentieth century is the "American Century," we have been trying to understand our role in it.
In a bold reinterpretation of our country's rise to world power, Olivier Zunz shows how Americans appropriated the twentieth century; America's ascent was not the result of Europe's self-destruction. By the Second World War, Zunz argues, American policymakers, corporate managers, engineers, and social scientists were managing the country from within a powerful matrix of institutions devoted to festering new knowledge. These men and women promoted a new social contract of abundance which was capable, in theory, of deradicalizing class, and their efforts helped create an American middle class defined by consumer behavior. In the name of democracy, they promoted a controversial ideology that stressed the value of respecting differences among people. The result was a culture that allowed Americans to intervene on the world scene with the justification that they were right in doing so.
- Full contents:
-
- Preface: "The New Colossus"
- Pt. 1. Making the Century American. Ch. 1. Producers, Brokers, and Users of Knowledge. Ch. 2. Defining Tools of Social Intelligence. Ch. 3. Inventing the Average American
- Pt. 2. The Social Contract of the Market. Ch. 4. Turning out Consumers. Ch. 5. Deradicalizing Class
- Pt. 3. Embattled Identities. Ch. 6. From Voluntarism to Pluralism. Ch. 7. Enlarging the Polity
- Pt. 4. Exporting American Principles. Ch. 8. Individualism and Modernization. Ch. 9. The Power of Uncertainty.
- Preface: "The New Colossus"
- Pt. 1. Making the Century American. Ch. 1. Producers, Brokers, and Users of Knowledge. Ch. 2. Defining Tools of Social Intelligence. Ch. 3. Inventing the Average American
- Pt. 2. The Social Contract of the Market. Ch. 4. Turning out Consumers. Ch. 5. Deradicalizing Class
- Pt. 3. Embattled Identities. Ch. 6. From Voluntarism to Pluralism. Ch. 7. Enlarging the Polity
- Pt. 4. Exporting American Principles. Ch. 8. Individualism and Modernization. Ch. 9. The Power of Uncertainty.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (p. [193]-245) and index.
- Subject:
- Also Titled:
- American century?
- Copyright:
-
In Copyright
You may copy under some circumstances, for example you may copy a portion for research or study. Order a copy through Copies Direct to the extent allowed under fair dealing. Contact us for further information about copying.
Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Literary Dramatic Musical
- Published status:
- Published
- Publication date:
- 1998
Copyright status may not be correct if data in the record is incomplete or inaccurate. Other access conditions may also apply. For more information please see: Copyright in library collections.
Request this item
Request this item to view in the Library’s reading room.
Feedback
Similar items
- America in the twentieth century
- It's all news to me; a reporter's deposition, by Bob Considine
- Roosevelt to Roosevelt; the United States in the twentieth century, by Dwight Lowell Dumond
- Since 1900 : a history of the United States in our times / [by] Oscar Theodore Barck [and] Nelson Manfred Blake : [bibliog.]
- Since 1900 : a history of the United States in our times / [by] Oscar Theodore Barck [and] Nelson Manfred Blake