Them and Us

by Kroes, Rob

• ISBN13: 9780252069093
• ISBN10: 0252069099
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-10-01
• Publisher: Univ of Illinois Pr

Summary

An accomplished set of meditations by one of Europe's leading Americanists, Them and Us is a rich comparative study of European and American cultural traditions and their influence on conceptions of community. In contrast with the ethnic and nationalist allegiances that historically have splintered Europe, Rob Kroes identifies a complex of cultural practices that have mitigated against ethnically rooted divisions in the United States. He argues that the American approach -- articulated by a national rhetoric emphasizing openness rather than closure, diversity rather than uniformity -- has much to offer a Europe where the nationalist and ethnic conflicts that spawned two world wars continue to sow terror and destruction.

Kroes discusses European and American attitudes toward the welfare state, the human rights tradition in the United States, and the role of regionalism in shaping conceptions of national identity. He also considers new, transnational forms of cultural membership that are emerging to take the place of nation-based citizenship. He contends that t

Author Biography

Rob Kroes is the chair of American studies at the University of Amsterdam.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction: Cultural Affinities and Political Affiliations	xi
PART 1: CULTURAL AFFINITIES
Supranationalism and Its Discontents	3	(11)
Trespassing in America: American Views of Borders, Boundaries, and Frontiers	14	(9)
Between Globalism and Regionalism: A Comparison of Trends in North America and Europe	23	(20)
Immigrants and Transnational Localism: A Focus on Photography	43	(16)
PART 2: POLITICAL AFFILIATIONS
The Human Rights Tradition in the United States	59	(16)
Ideology: Black Box or the Logic of our Ideas?	75	(50)
Neopopulism and Neoconservatism in the United States: Social Drift and Sociological Dilemmas	125	(10)
National American Studies in europe, Transnational American Studies in America?	135	(12)
PART 3: TRANSNATIONAL AFFINITIES AND AFFILIATIONS
Traveling Theories, Traveling Theorists: French Views of American Modernity	147	(19)
America and the European Sense of History	166	(22)
Citizenship and Cyberspace	188	(17)
Notes	205	(10)
Index	215