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Irresistible Empire: America's Advance through Twentieth-Century Europe Paperback – Illustrated, October 31, 2006

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 30 ratings

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The most significant conquest of the twentieth century may well have been the triumph of American consumer society over Europe’s bourgeois civilization. It is this little-understood but world-shaking campaign that unfolds in Irresistible Empire, Victoria de Grazia’s brilliant account of how the American standard of living defeated the European way of life and achieved the global cultural hegemony that is both its great strength and its key weakness today.

De Grazia describes how, as America’s market empire advanced with confidence through Europe, spreading consumer-oriented capitalism, all alternative strategies fell before it―first the bourgeois lifestyle, then the Third Reich’s command consumption, and finally the grand experiment of Soviet-style socialist planning. Tracing the peculiar alliance that arrayed New World salesmanship, statecraft, and standardized goods against the Old World’s values of status, craft, and good taste, Victoria de Grazia follows the United States’ market-driven imperialism through a vivid series of cross-Atlantic incursions by the great inventions of American consumer society. We see Rotarians from Duluth in the company of the high bourgeoisie of Dresden; working-class spectators in ramshackle French theaters conversing with Garbo and Bogart; Stetson-hatted entrepreneurs from Kansas in the midst of fussy Milanese shoppers; and, against the backdrop of Rome’s Spanish Steps and Paris’s Opera Comique, Fast Food in a showdown with advocates for Slow Food. Demonstrating the intricacies of America’s advance, de Grazia offers an intimate and historical dimension to debates over America’s exercise of soft power and the process known as Americanization. She raises provocative questions about the quality of the good life, democracy, and peace that issue from the vaunted victory of mass consumer culture.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Quite possibly the most ambitious, original, and comprehensive study of the complex two-sided interactions between American popular culture and Europe to date. Both fair-minded and lively, de Grazia develops a bold overview of her subject right up to the present, without ever losing sight of the national and individual variations in the larger patterns of production, marketing, and reception. A dazzling and eloquent book.”Ann Douglas, author of Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920s

Irresistible Empire is extraordinary in the breadth of its historical vision, the depth of its archival research, and the fluency with which its author tacks across the 'White Atlantic' and, in turn, across continental Europe itself. Few authors approach de Grazia's wide familiarity with the sources and issues, and fewer still can write with such a marvelous balance of generosity and irony. A spectacular feast for the senses and the mind.”Michael Geyer, University of Chicago

Irresistible Empire is a brilliant synthesis of economic and cultural history--magisterial in scope, convincing in argument, written with vigor and grace. Victoria de Grazia breathes new life into the notion of 'Americanization,' providing fascinating details and fresh insights on nearly every page. This is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the elusive but implacable influence of American consumer culture in foreign settings, throughout the twentieth century and beyond. A powerful, important, and timely book.”Jackson Lears, author of Fables of Abundance: a Cultural History of Advertising in America

“A smart and engaging look at how U.S. consumerism swept aside European cultural conservatism to create a transatlantic, transnational market.”
Kirkus Reviews

“Thomas Mann, a Rotarian? This is only one of the many delicious surprises awaiting the reader of
Irresistible Empire, Victoria de Grazia's rich and richly ironic exploration of the vexed encounter between American salesmanship and the mercantile cultures of continental Europe. Tacking effortlessly across the White Atlantic, de Grazia tells the story of a near-century-long, transnational seduction--a story that is one part coercive geopolitics and one part coyly improvised dance.”Jean-Christophe Agnew, Yale University

“If Charlemagne or Napoleon could see their continent today, they would be with de Grazia. One glance at Europe's great capitals, and they would assume Europe had been conquered, occupied and settled by Americans. The men who dreamed of
l'Europe profonde would curse the ubiquity of Eminem as they sat in the greasy KFC on the Falls Road in Belfast munching their Chicken Popcorn. They would stagger their way around Italy's most beautiful city, guided by a McDonald's map of McVenice. Irresistible Empire is the story of how this happened, of how an imperium came to Europe in the form of an emporium. Unlike the Middle East and Latin America, Europe has seen only the peaceful face of America's empire. De Grazia...shows how--in just one century--the Old Continent was subject to slow conquest by a million consumer goods.”Johann Hari, New York Times Book Review

“[An] important, richly detailed, sometimes eccentric book...[De Grazia's] subject is 'the rise of a great imperium with the outlook of a great emporium': how America's products, producers and salesmen, with the full cognizance and backing of its politicians, came after 1900 to transform not just the purchasing habits and desires of Europeans but also their ideas about society and themselves...Much has been published on American empire and on the transatlantic divide in recent years. The great virtue of this work is that it takes a provocative and unusual line. De Grazia illustrates how empires can seduce and not simply coerce.”
Linda Colley, The Nation

“A major work of scholarship, 20 years in the making, that uses the tools of economics, history, and cultural studies to lay bare the mechanisms that created the American Century.”
Adam Kirsch, New York Sun

Irresistible Empire describes how 'cleverly marketed and advertised brand-goods' from across the Atlantic knocked down the fortresses of a more hierarchical and craft-based 20th-century European culture. The book is full of elegant case studies and erudite anecdotes.”Cormac Ó Gráda, Irish Times

“This book gives a doorstopping gloss on Churchill's remark that Americans always do the right thing...but only after exhausting all the other possibilities. [Europe's] capitulation to their capitalism is the subject of this elegant work. It is an eloquent book too, written with measure and cadences and care which have their roots in Old World learning rather than New World Write-Lite and its flashy neologisms...This is an impressively learned and intelligent book.”
Stephen Bayly, The Independent

“Victoria de Grazia's
Irresistible Empire, a 480-page juggernaut in a mini-flotilla of recent books about 'soft power,' represents a remarkable, big-think undertaking two decades in the making...Today, as Europe endures turbulence over the state of its own union, de Grazia's book could not be more timely...That de Grazia limits herself to the roots of American influence in Europe is a testament to her depth. But it is her robust writing, mastery of scene-setting, and deft deconstruction of illustrative events that move it from academic to accessible.”Clayton Collins, Christian Science Monitor

“This wonderful book, written with extraordinary erudition and verve by a social historian, is a study of the way in which the American ethos of mass consumption has 'conquered' Europe since the interwar period.”
Stanley Hoffman, Foreign Affairs

“The triumph of American commercial values over old Europe's overtly intellectual culture in the 20th century is the theme of Victoria de Grazia's compelling, thorough and sparklingly written study...The author is right to contend that mass consumer culture is such an ephemeral form of material life that the great trends that formed it are 'easily lost to sight.' But this masterful book brings them right back into our field of vision.”
Peter Aspden, Financial Times

“De Grazia writes clearly, giving an uncommon perspective on the ways and means by which the U.S. and Europe drew close after WWII.”
Publishers Weekly

“[R]eaders will be intrigued by de Grazia's magisterial account of economic and cultural change.”
Carl L. Bankston III, SalemPressOnline

“This is an extraordinary book, and de Grazia displays impressive range and erudition in taking the reader from Dresden to Duluth, Minnesota, from Belgian entrepreneurs to Italian supermarket concerns, to the boardrooms of the advertising giant J. Walter Thompson on New York's Madison Avenue. She attends both to material, economic changes and to the social (and gender-historical) consequences and cultural meanings of those changes, a divide that few historians are able to span. Consequently, hers is a richly textured and multilayered account, highly accessible for its absorbing anecdotes and engaging style and yet deeply grounded in archival research and current historiographic insight. Above all, de Grazia has done a tremendous service by theorizing and historicizing this contentious topic and by giving it the transnational treatment that it demands. This ambitious book will remain a reference point for years to come.”
Paul Lerner, Times Literary Supplement

“In this stimulating book, Victoria de Grazia explains how an American "market empire" displaced an Old World consumer regime built around community, solidarity, and class hierarchy...De Grazia develops her argument through case studies, each one masterfully written and impressively documented...Her multilingual research, attention to the power of norms in everyday life, and ability to synthesize business, politics, and culture make this one of the most important books written about consumerism in international history.”
Christopher Endy, Journal of American History

“Victoria de Grazia's book makes a significant contribution to the current academic discourse on imperialism by focusing not on its political and military dimensions, but on its cultural manifestations...This is a scholarly and provocative book which makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the contemporary role of culture and its diffusion...In addition to its scholarly contributions, this is a readable and enjoyable book, which contains a wealth of interesting information that will appeal to both academic and popular audiences.”
Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare

“Victoria de Grazia's
Irresistible Empire: America's Advance Through Twentieth-Century Europe is both a study of the forces working to 'Americanize' Europe and a contribution to the debate about their value...The strength of her account lies in its long-term perspective...De Grazia approaches the issue of Americanization through a series of finely drawn case studies which examine not merely the obvious examples of American commercial practice--the chain store, big-brand goods, Hollywood movies, and the supermarket--but also the mechanisms by which she believes American capitalist values were spread through Europe. Many of these individual chapters read like stand-alone essays--nuanced, witty, and carefully polished accounts, for instance, of the Rotary International or the European poster industry...As Irresistible Empire amply demonstrates, shrewd American entrepreneurs and patriotic zealots (often one and the same person) have tried hard and often successfully to inculcate 'American' business practices in Europe. Europe would be a different place without them.”John Brewer, New York Review of Books

“Given the proliferation of studies of consumption, a comparative and integrative study in this area is to be warmly welcomed. Victoria de Grazia makes a notable contribution with a study that offers a good deal of interest to business historians...Both the range and the close argument encourage frequent dips into the extensive notes and bibliography to identify particular sources and connections.”
Michael French, Business History Review

“Victoria de Grazia's
Irresistible Empire is a dazzling work that aims to reassess the American impact on Europe in the twentieth century...No historian has yet attempted what de Grazia does here: a sweeping synthesis that provides very detailed and thick descriptions of just how private and state projects have operated to carry American methods and products to Europe, changing the nature of business and consumer culture.”Max Paul Friedman, H-German

“[Victoria de Grazia’s] insightful, thoroughly researched, and beautifully written book treats an important and pivotal moment in Europe’s encounter with the emerging hyper-puissance, the United States… On the whole, Victoria de Grazia’s recent work will be valuable to intellectual, cultural, and business historians, as well as anyone who enjoys ruminating on the divisions that continue to bedevil the transatlantic alliance, especially in regard to how Europeans and Americans conduct their business and, indeed, their lives.”
Richard Kim, Theory & Society

“This richly rewarding and smoothly synthetic work traces the influence of American business practices and models in Europe through the crisis-wracked course of the twentieth century. Its palpable merits lie in the close coordination of archival research and transversal analysis across different regional locales, business sectors, nation-states, and periods--all accomplished with brisk synoptic sweep...This important, well-crafted, and stimulating work has very convenient aids in its illustrations, endnotes, and critical bibliographical essays. It will be an excellent classroom resource across undergraduate and graduate courses. The argument is bolstered by clear, pertinent statistical information and "hard" data to support the author's case for sinewy "soft-power" hegemony.”
Michael Ermarth, Journal of Modern History

“Victoria de Grazia’s
Irresistible Empire is a bravura performance. Based on prodigious research in archival and published sources on both sides of the Atlantic, the book is beautifully written, with epic sweep and the eye of a novelist―or perhaps better a filmmaker―for the significant detail that simultaneously limns a character and advances the story line. Fascinating empirical discoveries await the reader in every chapter, from Thomas Mann as a Rotarian at the beginning to the Eurocommunist origins of the Slow Food movement at the end. But Irresistible Empire is no mere cabinet of archival curiosities or album of microhistorical vignettes. Animated by a bold thesis about the triumph of American mass consumer culture, with its stratified, status-conscious worlds of goods, over European bourgeois civilization, this book offers nothing less than a grand macro-synthesis of twentieth-century Western history, integrating cultural, economic, and diplomatic themes on a transatlantic scale.”Jonathan Zeitlin, Journal of Cold War Studies

About the Author

Victoria de Grazia is Moore Collegiate Professor of History at Columbia University and a founding editor of Radical History Review. Her widely translated, prizewinning books include Irresistible Empire: America’s Advance through Twentieth-Century Europe and How Fascism Ruled Women. She has received the Woodrow Wilson, Jean Monnet, and Guggenheim fellowships and the Rome Prize Fellowship from the American Academy in Rome.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Belknap Press (October 31, 2006)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 608 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0674022343
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0674022348
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.65 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.14 x 1.52 x 9.21 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 30 ratings

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Customers find the book thought-provoking and stimulating. They feel the conclusion provides an emotional and intellectual punch. However, opinions differ on the writing quality - some find it exquisite and readable, while others say it's attenuated at times.

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3 customers mention "Thought provoking"3 positive0 negative

Customers find the book thought-provoking and stimulating. They say the conclusion leaves an emotional and intellectual impact, though some find the prose a bit rough.

"...Despite these lacunae, the book is a a thought-provoking exercise and though the prose is bit attenuated at times, it is overall readable and..." Read more

"This is a deeply insightful work on how America "conquered" Western Europe with one of the most devastating and total weapons in its arsenal during..." Read more

"...When the chapters arc to their conclusion, you feel a real emotional and intellectual punch. History writing just doesn't get any better than this." Read more

4 customers mention "Writing quality"2 positive2 negative

Customers have different views on the writing quality. Some find it exquisite and readable, while others say the prose is at times attenuated.

"...reviews fail to convey about this wonderful book is that the writing is exquisite...." Read more

"...the book is a a thought-provoking exercise and though the prose is bit attenuated at times, it is overall readable and stimualting." Read more

"...and though the prose is bit attenuated at times, it is overall readable and stimualting." Read more

"...In fact, her prose is so erudite that, at times, it hides the main argument in each chapter...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2006
    This is a very clever book. The author pinned her explanation of American influence in Europe on canny business practices. The service ethic. Big-branding. Supermarkets. These are some of the themes that are worked over to make the case. The book is delighfully stuffed with anecdotes, vignettes and odd facts and statistics to lend it the feel of visiting a large emporium of ideas. Personally, I liked this 'shelf browsing' feel to the chapters.

    The book has a few serious downsides which marr its central argument. First and foremost, the author takes little cognisance of the influence of WWII on shaping European attitudes towards American culture. Secondly, in the two generations after WWII more Europeans (percentage) speak English in order to accommodate their ambitions. The author attributes the creeping growth of English pre-WWII to business needs (strange to me that she singles out the Rotarians as particularly influential). However, that does not explain its widesprgead endorsement by the general citizenry after WWII. This brings me the third issue, the lack of attention paid to the rise of youth culture - largely driven by perceptions of American youth in the fifties. Music, rock'n'roll and the drug culture were directed to a large extent by American tastes. Consumerism is too broad a concept to explain the uptake of American habits.

    Despite these lacunae, the book is a a thought-provoking exercise and though the prose is bit attenuated at times, it is overall readable and stimualting.
    13 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2009
    This is a deeply insightful work on how America "conquered" Western Europe with one of the most devastating and total weapons in its arsenal during the twentieth century: economics. De Grazia isolates the nine characteristics of American consumer culture (the service ethic, branding, corporate advertising, etc.) and how each of these overcame intense cultural opposition in Europe and eventually made the West a true "consumers paradise." Here analysis is very keen on both how America's consumer-culture changed the European world in the interwar period (c. 1919-1939) and how those gains were solidified following World War II's end. However, there is one thing about this work that makes it seem distant both to me and to any possible general readers: de Grazia's prose is too cerebral. This is typified with her overuse of the words "bourgeois" and "bourgeoisie," which I was able to understand having had those words drilled into my head in my high school European history class, but I doubt that the average history reader would get it. In fact, her prose is so erudite that, at times, it hides the main argument in each chapter. While America's cultural dominance of twentieth century Europe should be studied, I would recommend this book only to a true history buff with a high SAT verbal score.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2006
    What the other reviews fail to convey about this wonderful book is that the writing is exquisite. Each chapter uses real-life examples, ironies and juxtapositions to vividly evoke contrasts between America and Europe and demonstrate the course of change. When the chapters arc to their conclusion, you feel a real emotional and intellectual punch. History writing just doesn't get any better than this.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2014
    Excellent book
  • Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2005
    As someone who reads for a living, let me commend the work of Professor Victoria de Grazia: Irresistible Empire. You see, to write a review, one must not only READ the book, but UNDERSTAND what's read! Professor de Grazia makes reading her book an educational,enlightening pleasure.I read Irresistable Empire prior to interviewing Prof.de Grazia on my radio show. My producer Bun-E and I select books/interviews that will enlighten and entertain our diverse audience. The book MUST be 'readable', for which Irresistable Empire receives an A+AND relevant, another A+!!We've been told by listeners that this book's a great choice for Christmas lists! The entertaining style that Victoria de Grazia writes enhances the reader's ability to understand the "Americanization of Europe" - as much has been written about the subject but little has been understood prior to this book. A book that educates in a very entertaining style?-that's Irresistable Empire!!!
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2005
    De Grazia shows that the triumph of American-style consumption in Europe -- from supermarkets to Hollywood movies -- wasn't automatic; there were alternatives, there was resistance, there was a history. The book is full of fascinating surprises: Woodrow Wilson's speech to the first World's Salesmanship Congress in 1916; the Duluth-Dresden connection; Hitler promising to protect Europe from American economic domination. This may be the best book we have on the history of consumption in the 20th century.
    14 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • gerardpeter
    5.0 out of 5 stars Empire of Fun
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 9, 2024
    The standard view of the American Empire is that it was [and is] primarily a function of political and military power. Cultural power is understood as important but ancillary to real power. This book treats US imperialism quite differently, a great imperium with the outlook of a great emporium, an “empire of fun”. The novelty of the approach makes it very informative, even fascinating. It is very detailed and closely argued.

    Each chapter deals with different forms and techniques of commercial advancement, even control, developed in America and exported to displace the buying and selling practices of old Europe, and also to see off the challenge of the Third Reich and then the Soviet system.

    Some are better known than others. The Rotary Club counted for rather more than is suggested by its dull reputation. Consumer studies, now more or less a universal practice, complemented the definition of a “standard of living” which set the bar at the expectations of the skilled US worker. Between production and consumption comes distribution, very much neglected by Europeans but actively promoted by canny American retailers. The Adman of course was the missionary in this capitalist crusade. She describes how Hollywood – or more accurately the predatory instincts of big movie makers -crushed the more artistic productions of European directors. Not, one might say, unequivocally a good thing. Readers will be familiar with the rescue operation of the Marshall Plan, but the author highlights that it was conceived to promote a consumerist alternative to the Welfare State, an alternative form of citizenship. The American market introduced those white goods and domestic aids which liberated the European housewife from drudger. She became more like her transatlantic sister, Mrs Consumer.

    One has to disregard some unnecessarily acid comments on the left and socialism, use of the occasional crude expression too. However, in general, one can hardly complain that De Grazia is business friendly, that being rather the point of the book. Some knowledge of the standard narrative is valuable, set against which De Grazia can be really appreciated. She opened my eyes to a different perspective on the 20th century.