How far have we come in the past 100 years? If we look back to 1900, quite a way baby, quite a way. The 20th century began with Queen Victoria still ruling England, the Romanov Tsars in Russia and the Imperial Manchu Dynasty in China. Cinema was something in its infancy stages and radio, TV, air travel and the computer were yet to be discovered. Today, democracy and free markets, in large part furthered by American example and might, are spreading the globe from the former Soviet Union states to Latin America. As one historian says of the present situation “Like it or not, the world is American” (Yemma 1).
If American culture and institutions like democracy and free market economies sweep the world, it is largely due to increased American intervention in formerly oppressive regimes. While our military might and global intentions do have limits, American culture has influenced every region of the globe. Hollywood, Madison Avenue and Corporate America are as responsible for this wave of international Americanism as much as our military intervention and might. As we head into the 21st century as the world’s dominant power we know our global influence does have its limits, but the world is becoming increasingly Americanized from cultural, political and economic perspectives:
It may not be American the way Henry Luce and John Foster Dulles envisioned. Imperial Washington cannot simply work its will on the world. We are unable, for instance, to topple mean little men like Moammar Gadhafi and Saddam Hussein. We cannot make Japan and China curb their trade surpluses, or secure our borders against drug traffickers and international terrorists. Politically, America’s global reach is limited. But the world is increasingly American in what may be a more profound, fundamental and lasting way—through the dominance of our culture everywhere, even in places many Americans have barely heard of.
This is not to say that A...