Review: Irresistible Empire

Abstract

IRRESISTIBLE EMPIRE America's Advance through 2Oth Century Europe Victoria de Grazia Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005. 586 pp, US$i9-95 paper (ISBN 978-0674022348)On the eve of US entry into World War I, Woodrow Wilson spoke on international affairs to a congress of salesmen gathered in Detroit. As the president saw it, the nation faced the same options as the conventioneers: it could force its preferences on potential markets, as German monopolists did, or it could study the tastes and needs of the countries where the markets were being sought and suit [its] goods to those tastes and needs. That, insisted the president, was the American way, in statecraft as well as commerce (i). And that, suggests de Grazia, was the fundamental approach of what she terms the empire, a imperium with the outlook of a great emporium, a US enterprise commanded more by Rotary Club members, advertising executives, chain store magnates, and Hollywood producers than by government officials such as Wilson, who soon departs the stage, leaving the spotlight to shine on the profit-minded private sector (3).Whereas much of the literature on Americanization, in Europe and elsewhere, has emphasized popular culture, de Grazia emphasizes business practices such as distribution, branding, and advertising. Even her chapter on film centres on production systems rather than content analysis or viewer responses. This is a book more concerned with consumption regimes than consumers. Debates over standards of living and retail practices figure more prominently than shopping, eating, smoking, and the like.Aside from differentiating de Grazia's research from consumer-centred accounts, the emphasis on business practices also differentiates it from studies of Americanization that highlight the doings of the US government. In contrast to work on the promotional state, monetary policy, military occupations, the Marshall Plan, and so forth, Irresistible Empire generally disaggregates corporate initiatives from official programs, thus suggesting that US capital carved its own distinctive mark on 20th century Europe. Although those interested in policy may conclude that she has thrown the proverbial baby (the US government) out with the bathwater (popular culture studies), de Grazia has done an impressive job of refilling the tub.Of particular value is de Grazia's effort to identify the main features of the market empire. The first and most fundamental, she argues, was its tendency to regard other nations as having but limited sovereignty over their public space. second, it exported civil society along with trade goods and commercial practices. Third, it wielded the power of norms-making. Fourth, it preached a particular kind of democracy, one tied more to the value of consumer choice and individual acquisitiveness than to social solidarity. …