‘Our dollars are celebrities abroad’: American tourists, consumption, and power after World War II

Abstract

ABSTRACTDuring the late 1940s and 1950s, tourism industry officials, government leaders, and travel writers described American tourists as fonts of foreign aid. Souvenir-hunters would rebuild war-devastated countries, spread American goodwill, and stimulate the global economy – all while treating themselves to fun and bargains. While travel boosters worked to connect American consumerism, U.S. power, and global prosperity, the experiences of ordinary tourists in shops and markets around the world often complicated this narrative. And by the 1960s, the declining strength of the U.S. dollar abroad would come to embody larger fears about America’s diminishing global stature. This article argues that tourists’ experiences as shoppers overseas can help us understand the ways in which ordinary Americans both bolstered and grappled with U.S. global hegemony.