How the World Was Won: The Americanization of Everywhere - Hardcover

'A magisterial story, never before told in such an intelligent and, essentially, sympathetic manner' - Prospect 'Very fine ... vastly detailed and immensely subtle' - The Glasgow Herald 'Conrad unrolls the 20th century like a giant canvas and takes us on a provocative, enjoyable romp through its quarrels, rivalries and vanities ... an absorbing and highly accessible book ... an affectionate, comprehensive survey of the art and popular culture of a century' - The Irish Times 'Marvellous ... sparkling with arresting vignettes - a testament to forensic research' - Independent 'Conrad is stunningly well-informed, compulsively allusive and equipped with the kind of imagination that transforms the base metal of history into pure gold' - Observer

In this dazzling new book, cultural critic and historian Peter Conrad tells the story of the spectacular rise and subsequent waning of American influence across the world since 1945. Politics, war and commerce form the inevitable backdrop to his tale, but Conrad also treats us to a kaleidoscopic presentation of America’s unstoppable creativity: its output of great, good and enjoyably bad art, of jeans and jazz, fast food and fridges, space travel, comic books and motorbikes, technologies and therapies, along with the heroic, erotic or violent cinematic visions that have Americanized even our dreams.

Table of Contents

1. Looking to America · 2. A Coming of Age · 3. ‘The Meaning of America’ 324 ‘Have We Any Friends?’ · 5. Prosperity or Tragedy · 6. ‘Master of the Earth’ · 7. American Girls in Italy and Elsewhere · 8. Free-Enterprise Art · 9. Americanophilia · 10. On the Roads · 11. ‘Americanize Yourselves!’ · 12. Little America · 13. Astronauts and Assassins · 14. ‘I Want it to Come HERE!’ · 15. Nether Americas · 16. B-Day and Other Invasions · 17. Dialogues with Consumer Products · 18. The Campaign to Free America · 19. ‘Why Do They Hate Us?’ · 20. ‘Thanks, America’ · Acknowledgments, Index