From modernism to the movies: The globalization of American culture in the twentieth century

The cultural relationship between the United States and world has never been one-sided. On the contrary, America was and continues to be as much a consumer of foreign intellectual and artistic influences as it has been a shaper of the world’s entertainment and tastes. Indeed, American culture has spread throughout the world precisely because it has drawn on foreign styles and ideas. Americans have then reassembled and repackaged the cultural products they received from abroad, and retransmitted them to the rest of the planet. In effect, Americans have specialized in selling the fantasies and folklore of other people back to them. This is the reason America’s culture has been so popular for so long in so many places.