Books Between Europe And The Americas

A ground-breaking collection by thirteen distinguished international scholars; this volume presents fresh perspectives on the exchange of culture and ideas between isolated communities through books and correspondence, and offers pioneering comparisons between the northern Atlantic and that of Spanish and Portuguese territories further south.

The American Discovery of Europe investigates the voyages of America's Native peoples to the European continent before Columbus's 1492 arrival in the "New World." The product of over twenty years of exhaustive research in libraries throughout Europe and the United States, the book paints a clear picture of the diverse and complex societies that constituted the Americas before 1492 and reveals the surprising Native American involvements in maritime trade and exploration. Starting with an encounter by Columbus himself with mysterious people who had apparently been carried across the Atlantic on favorable currents, Jack D. Forbes proceeds to explore the seagoing expertise of early Americans, theories of ancient migrations, the evidence for human origins in the Americas, and other early visitors coming from Europe to America, including the Norse. The provocative, extensively documented, and heartfelt conclusions of The American Discovery of Europe present an open challenge to received historical wisdom.

British politics has been crucially shaped by England's role as pioneer of capitalism, by the experience of Empire, and by the particular form of its union with Scotland, Ireland and Wales. With the decline of Empire the attempt to bridge Europe and America has become ever more central to Britain's identity, political economy and ideology. In this major new book, Andrew Gamble assesses the major transformations of British politics under Thatcher and Blair and the stark choices for the future at the start of the 21st century.

“America First” is “America Alone” Foreign policy is like physics: vacuums quickly fill. As the United States retreats from the international order it helped put in place and maintain since the end of World War II, Russia is rapidly filling the vacuum. Federiga Bindi’s new book assesses the consequences of this retreat for transatlantic relations and Europe, showing how the current path of US foreign policy is leading to isolation and a sharp decrease of US influence in international relations. Transatlantic relations reached a peak under President Barack Obama. But under the Trump administration, withdrawal from the global stage has caused irreparable damage to the transatlantic partnership and has propelled Europeans to act more independently. Europe and America explores this tumultuous path by examining the foreign policy of the United States, Russia, and the major European Union member states. The book highlights the consequences of US retreat for transatlantic relations and Europe, demonstrating that “America first” is becoming “America alone,” perhaps marking the end of transatlantic relations as we know it, with Europe no longer beholden to the US national interest.

From an April 1996 colloquium, The American Cultural Impact on Germany, France, Italy, and Japan, 1945-1995: An International Comparison, 11 essays examine the reception and impact of American products and images. Most of the contributors are historians, but others from fields such as architecture and literature. They move beyond the standard model of cultural colonialism and democratic modernization, while never loosing sight of the asymmetry in power relations between the countries and the US. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

An ambitious, original book describing a century of Europe coping with America: its inventions, personalities, films, armies, business, and politics. These decades reveal how much emotional energy Europeans invested in finding their own ways to reconcile tradition and modernity under the pressure of the ever-evolving American challenge.

"The focus of this book is the emerging economic confrontation between European and U.S. capitalism at the end of the 'golden age' of capitalism in the late 1960s. Ernest Mandel here paints a remarkably clear, comprehensive, and detailed portrait of trends at that critical period. Mandel moves with ease from the most general international problems to the specifics of corporate activity, and few developments in the business and economic worlds seem to have escaped his attention. His story starts with the erosion of the enormous power possessed by American capitalism at the close of World War II. Compelled by the exigencies of its counter-revolutionary role to revive the European and Japanese economies, the U.S. then found itself confronted by formidable competitors in both the Eastern and Western hemispheres. But this competition was constrained by the process of international concentration of capital; capital, spilling over outmoded national boundaries, interpenetrated to modify the competition both between Europe and America and among the European states themselves. Despite this, capital proved very far from being able to free itself from national attachments, from the interests of a specific national bourgeoisie" -- Provided by publisher's website.

There is much heated rhetoric about the widening gulf between Europe and America. But are the US and Europe so different? Peter Baldwin, one of the world's leading historians of comparative social policy, thinks not, and in this bracingly argued but remarkably informed polemic, he lays out how similar the two continents really are. Drawing on the latest evidence from sources such as the United Nations, the World Bank, IMF, and other international organizations, Baldwin offers a fascinating comparison of the United States and Europe, looking at the latest statistics on the economy, crime, health care, education and culture, religion, the environment, and much more. It is a book filled with surprising revelations. For most categories of crime, for instance, America is safe and peaceful by European standards. But the biggest surprise is that, though there are many differences between America and Europe, in almost all cases, these differences are no greater than the differences among European nations. Europe and the US are, in fact, part of a common, big-tent grouping. America is not Sweden, for sure. But nor is Italy Sweden, nor France, nor even Germany. And who says that Sweden is Europe? Anymore than Vermont is America? "Meticulous, insistent, and elegant." --John Lloyd, Financial Times "A must-read...filled with intriguing facts that add nuance to what can often be a black-and-white debate." --Foreign Affairs "An exhaustive and enthralling catalogue of our commonalities that begs a reconsideration of just what it means to be European or American." --Publishers Weekly