Americanization: Cultural Expansion and Economic Influence 1890-1945

In Spreading the American Dream: American Economic and Cultural Expansion, 1890-1945, author Emily S. Rosenberg introduces to us how the United States shared its unique liberal economy and culture with the world. In her introduction, she illustrates the 1893 Chicago World Colombian Exposition and the ideology of liberal developmentalism and gives the reasoning behind the cultural imperialism. Rosenberg does not focus on the reaction to the “Americanizing”, but chooses to focus on the reasoning and justification of “Americanization”. My reaction to the introduction of Spreading the American Dream is that the ideology of liberal developmentalism was a valid reasoning to combat the American “isolationism” that the United States was associated

with during the 1920s, that the United States were, quite interestingly, very imperialistic in that sense, and that it would have been interesting to see the reactions to the liberal developmentalism from both the business and the public sides of America.
In the 1890s, urbanization was very popular in the United States.

Immigrants were processed through Ellis Island and flooded the cities in search of the jobs promised by the American propaganda. Cities were becoming over crowded and factory and work codes were not even taken into consideration. Despite these deplorable conditions, the 1893 World’s Fair, also known as the Colombian Exposition or the White City, debuted on May 1, 1893. Here, the best of the best of American innovation was broadcasted to the world. “The world's fair hosted fifty nations and twenty-six colonies,” according to americasbesthistory.com, an impressive feat considering that cars still had not been introduced until 1910. While reading the first part of the introduction of Spreading the American Dream, I felt a bit amazed myself. Considering the time period and the technology that was available to the world, General Electric’s Edison Tower of Light would dazzle me as well. However, as I read the second part of the introduction, particularly the five major features of the ideology of liberal developmentalism, I thought that the Americans’ wish for the world to follow in its footsteps was incredibly narcissistic, if not a bit optimistic. The Americans wished for the world, both first world and third world, to adopt their policies and become more like The States. Interestingly enough, these thoughts are very reminiscent of the great empires, such as the Russian Empire, the Mongol Empire, and, of course,

the British Empire. While The States were not attempting to become an empire, they definitely began to develop the qualities of imperialism. America is not conquering any land, which is what makes an empire an empire, but is, instead, spreading its culture by the means of nationalism that the Americans are so well known for and by the propaganda that the United States produces.
The other side to the idea of liberal developmentalism is just as important to the actual argument. I think it would have been very interesting to see a counter argument to liberal developmentalism, as well as the reactions to the ideology of this optimism. The business side of the “Americanization” is briefly noted on page 10 of the introduction where the people are questioning “why should private entrepreneurs, unrestrained and encouraged by government… not duplicate their American success story in other parts of the world?”. Recreating the American success would logically be beneficial to both the company and to the spreading of the American culture. However, despite this brief question, there is no mention of the public’s reaction to the spread of American culture. As we know today, American nationalism is a very strong concept and this nationalism is sometimes directly tied to the imperialism that some view America to have a strong connection to.