America and Australia: Americanization and Political Culture

Abstract

In 1998 an excellent survey, edited by Philip Bell and Roger Bell, explored the influences of American life and culture on Australia. Scarcely any aspect of Australian life was unaffected by American example or direct intervention by Americans, almost from the beginning of our colonial history. This fine collection of essays exposed a rich vein of observation on the United States, and offered astute commentary on the interactions between our two polities — all the while accepting that America, as vastly bigger than Australia, was the dominant partner in any exchange. Yet the somewhat patriotic tenor of the volume was that, although these American influences were everywhere to be found, they were largely assimilated to our own purposes, and changed into acceptable Australian patterns. As one of the contributors put it, the process was largely to 'adopt, adapt and transform'. This applied as much to language as to popular culture, film, television, sport, urbanization, literature, race relations, industrial relations and popular movements.