Synopses & Reviews
This is the first systemic investigation of the various efforts to promote the expansion of American culture via major religious, social, political and governmental institutions. Christian missionaries, secular cultural elite, and the government have served as three major forces pushing American cultural values and political idealism abroad, although each has emphasized different elements of Americanism—Christian beliefs, individualism, democracy, and free enterprise—in championing American leadership. In the course of American ascendance as an international power and a superpower, education caught the imagination of different groups as the means to shape individual views and world outlook from the American perspective. Major philanthropic enterprises have likewise hoped to encourage positive sentiment toward American influence.
Education has served as the vehicle to train future world leaders who, acting as cultural agents of transmission, were expected to carry American values and ideas to their home countries. The exportation of American culture, however, encountered challenges as those future leaders experienced contradictions of the ideals they were taught to embrace in the daily life of American society. Moreover, different players emphasized different elements of Americanism in their educational endeavors. This study analyzes these challenges and the tensions inherent in the exportation of American cultural influence on a global level.
Review
[T]his book is an extraordinarily informative and significant contribution to the scholarship on the cultural and educational dimensions of foreign policy.American Historical Review
Review
[B]u makes an important contribution to the role of soft power in American foreign policy, a powerful component of America's national security state.The Journal of American History
Synopsis
This is the first systemic investigation of the various efforts to promote the expansion of American culture via major religious, social, political, and governmental institutions. Christian missionaries, secular cultural elite, and the government have served as three major forces pushing American cultural values and political idealism abroad. This study analyzes these influences and the tensions inherent in the exportation of American cultural influences on a global level.
Synopsis
Examines the spread of American culture through the efforts of religious organizations, philanthropies, educational, and governmental institutions.
About the Author
LIPING BU is Associate Professor of History at Alma College. She is co-editor of The Cultural Turn: Essays in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations.
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
Before World War II
Cultural Expansion: Missionary Thrust of an Ecumenical World
Cultural Internationalism: Educational Exchange and Cultural Understanding for World Peace
Liberal Visions in a Conservative