David Ellwood

Hur uppstod idén om Amerika, hur har den omformats genom historien, vart är den på väg? Kring dessa och liknande frågor kretsade Engelsbergsseminariet 2009. Vilka är komponenterna i den amerikanska idén? Hur förvaltas de i dagens USA? Hur reagerar resten av världen på dem? Sker idag en övergång till en post-amerikansk värld? Vem kommer i så fall att ta över USA:s ledande ställning? Indien? Kina? Och vad skulle det innebära? Vilka tankefigurer skulle då komma att prägla världen? Eller har USA chansen att bli kvar som herre på täppan? Bevittnar vi början på slutet för idén om Amerika eller befinner vi oss bara i början av en amerikansk era? Bland bidragsgivarna märks Anatol Lieven, Deepak Lal, Jong-Yil Ra, Edward Luce och Alan Wolfe.

The Shock of America is based on the proposition that whenever Europeans of the last 100 years or more contemplated those margins of their experience where change occurred, there, sooner or later, they would find America. How Europeans have come to terms over the decades with this dynamic force in their midst, and what these terms were, is the story at the heart of this text. Masses of Europeans have been enthralled by the real or imaginary prospects coming out of the USA. Important minorities were at times deeply upset by them. Sometime the roles were reversed or shaken up. But nobody could be indifferent for long. Inspiration, provocation, myth, menace, model: all these categories and many more have been deployed to try to cope with the Americans. Attitudes and stereotypes have emerged, intellectual resources have been mobilised, positions and policies developed; all trying to explain and deal with the kind of radiant modernity America built over the course of the twentieth century. David Ellwood combines political, economic, and cultural themes, suggesting that American mass culture has provided the United States with a uniquely effective link between power and influence over time. The book is structured in three parts; a separation based on the proposition that America's influence as an unavoidable force for or against innovation was visible most conspicuously after Europe's three greatest military-political conflicts of the contemporary era: the Great War, World War II, and the Cold War. It concludes with the emotional upsurge in Europe which greeted the arrival of Obama on the world scene, suggesting that in spite of all the disappointments and frictions of the years, the US still retained its privileged place as a source of inspiration for the future across the Western world.

The Shock of America is based on the proposition that whenever Europeans contemplated those margins of their experience where change occurred over the last 100 years or more, there, sooner or later, they would find America. How Europeans have come to terms over the decades with this dynamic force in their midst, and what these terms were, is the story at the heart of this text. Masses of Europeans have been enthralled by the real or imaginary prospects coming out of the USA. Important minorities were at times deeply upset by them. Sometime the roles were reversed or shaken up. But no-one could be indifferent for long. Inspiration, provocation, myth, menace, model: all these categories and many more have been deployed to try to cope with the Americans. Attitudes and stereotypes have emerged, intellectual resources have been mobilised, positions and policies developed: all trying to explain and deal with the kind of radiant supremacy the Americans built in the course of the twentieth century. David Ellwood combines political, economic, and cultural themes, suggesting that American mass culture is a distinctively incisive form of American power over time. The book is structured in three parts; a separation based on the proposition that America's influence as a decisive force for or against innovation was present most conspicuously after Europe's three greatest military-political conflicts of the contemporary era: the Great War, World War II, and the Cold War. It concludes with the emotional upsurge in Europe which greeted the arrival of Obama on the world scene, suggesting that in spite of all the disappointments and frictions of the years, the US still retained its privileged place as a source of inspiration for the future across the Western world.

The subject of a New York Times Magazine cover story of December 8, 1996, David Ellwood is one of the country's leading experts on poverty. In this book he describes who the poor are, explains why they are poor, and suggests new policies for helping them. Poor Support is a major reinterpretation of the various forms that poverty takes in American families and what can be done to alleviate the problem.