The British Discovery of American History: War, Liberalism and the Atlantic Connection

2005 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 357-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHAEL HEALE
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
American History ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
The Awakening ◽  
The Media ◽  
Second World ◽  
Academic Study

The years following the Second World War, according to the Norwegian scholar Sigmund Skard, witnessed the “Rediscovery of America,” as European academics belatedly turned their attention to the United States at a time when its pre-eminent global role could not be ignored. In Britain some believed that the awakening was already under way, the Principal of what became Exeter University having described 1941 as the year of the British “discovery of America.” The jarring realization that the very survival of Britain depended on a close alliance with the American giant had precipitated not only frenetic governmental activity but also intense interest in the United States throughout the media. Perhaps the “discovery” or “rediscovery” of America in British consciousness cannot be dated with exact precision, but the years from the war to the mid-1960s may fairly be called the “take-off period” for the academic study of American history in Britain. This essay briefly considers the role of some of the participants in this endeavour.

A Study of Bias in British and American History Textbooks

1965 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 31-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. L. Mowat
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
American History ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
History Textbooks ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
World War ◽  
Council Of Europe ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Second World

The examination of historical works, and especially school textbooks on history, for evidence of national bias, is nothing new. Between the wars the focus was on British and German histories, which were an object of concern to the Committee on Intellectual Cooperation of the League of Nations. Since the Second World War the subject of national bias in historical works has been taken up by the Council of Europe and UNESCO. A recent study has been concerned with current British and American textbooks, which have been examined for evidences of bias against the United States and Britain respectively.

165 Broadway – A crucial node in American Structural Linguistics

1991 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A. Hall
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
United States Armed Forces ◽  
Structural Linguistics ◽  
Second World

Summary During the Second World War, the United States Armed Forces Institute (USAFI) provided language teaching manuals and dictionaries for military and civilian use. From 1 July 1943 through 30 June 1945, this work was concentrated at an office which was located at 165 Broadway, New York City, and which was headed by a group of young, vigorous, and well trained linguists. The author provides a list of the personnel of this group and describes their activities and their relations with other developments in linguistics at that time and thereafter. Emphasis is placed on the crucial rôle of the ‘165 Broadway’ group in the application of structural linguistic analysis to the teaching of foreign languages in the United States in following decades.

Detectives and Forensic Science

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haia Shpayer-Makov
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Forensic Science ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Second World

This exploratory essay outlines various pivotal trends in the professionalization of police detection in England, France, and the United States from the mid-eighteenth century to the Second World War. Key landmarks in the evolution of the role of the detective from criminal turned paid informant, or from nonspecialist law enforcer, to a professional member of a detective unit are traced. The essay draws upon the history of forensic science to highlight the interface between detection and forensic science and to point toward forensic science methodologies that made significant inroads in the world of police detection, thereby enhancing its professionalization.

International Legitimacy Lost? Rule and Resistance When America Is First

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Lake
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World Order ◽  
Past Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World Politics ◽  
World War ◽  
Order Part ◽  
Second World

The pillars of the Pax Americana are decaying. There are two critical challenges. Our interests with our closest allies have been drifting apart for decades, with increasingly serious consequences. A new populist and economic nationalist coalition has been mobilized in the United States, challenging the internationalist coalition that has prevailed at home since the second World War. These challenges are not the product of President Donald J. Trump. He is the manifestation of these challenges, not their cause. Understanding these challenges requires examining anew the role of international legitimacy and authority in world politics and recognizing that different international orders have different distributional consequences. This essay summarizes my past research on the incentives for international hierarchy, integrates the role of domestic interests into that theory, and explores the nature and role of international legitimacy in the study of world order. Part II examines the Pax Americana, and contrasts this order with those found in the Caribbean basin and Middle East. The final section outlines the changing incentives for cooperation between the United States and Europe, discusses the rise of populism in the United States, and suggests ways of addressing the current challenges to internationalism.

‘Bombed into Stardom!’ – Roddy McDowall, ‘British Evacuee Star’ in Hollywood

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-62
Author(s):  
Michael Lawrence
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
American Film ◽  
World War ◽  
Star Image ◽  
The Media ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Second World ◽  
Star Text

This article considers the beginnings of the British actor Roddy McDowall's career as a child star in Hollywood. Following his relocation to the United States in October 1940 and signing a contract with Twentieth Century-Fox, McDowall quickly became one of Hollywood's most popular juvenile actors. For the duration of the Second World War, McDowall's star image was indissoluble from his status as a war guest: he was ‘a British evacuee star’. McDowall thus became an unofficial ambassador for the British nation, much like his fellow evacuees, who were widely recognised for their work improving Anglo-American relations. In the management of McDowall's image, and in his screen performances, there is a discernible effort to substantiate certain attitudes about the character and attributes of the British nation but also to challenge certain prejudices about English sissy boys. McDowall's star text was carefully managed so that the image of the actor presented by the media and the fictional characters he played on screen congealed in a productive way to inspire among American audiences specific sentiments about the British and America's relationship with the British nation during wartime. Analysing the representation of McDowall in American film magazines during the early 1940s, as well as his performances in three war-themed productions – Confirm or Deny (1941), On the Sunny Side (1942) and The White Cliffs of Dover (1944) – I explore the ways McDowall's star text functioned in its geopolitical and bio-political contexts.

Development of the Concepts for Providing Close Air Support

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-74
Author(s):  
Hristov Manush
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Air Force ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
The State ◽  
World War ◽  
Present Stage ◽  
Combat Experience ◽  
Second World

AbstractThe main objective of the study is to trace the perceptions of the task of an aviation component to provide direct aviation support to both ground and naval forces. Part of the study is devoted to tracing the combat experience gained during the assignment by the Bulgarian Air Force in the final combat operations against the Wehrmacht during the Second World War 1944-1945. The state of the conceptions at the present stage regarding the accomplishment of the task in conducting defensive and offensive battles and operations is also considered. Emphasis is also placed on the development of the perceptions of the task in the armies of the United States and Russia.

Aestheticism, Civil Society, and the Origins of Totalitarianism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Mangrum
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Vladimir Nabokov ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Lionel Trilling ◽  
Conservative Politics ◽  
New Critics ◽  
Second World

This chapter argues that ongoing concerns about the rise of totalitarianism led writers and intellectuals in the United States to oppose social-democratic institutions after the Second World War. Familiar accounts about opposition to these institutions center on conservative politics. In contrast, this chapter argues that liberal thinkers invoked forms of aestheticism to combat what they perceived as the possible rise of totalitarianism in the United States. In order to document this under-explored trend in American political culture, this chapter establishes connections across writing by Lionel Trilling, Vladimir Nabokov, Hannah Arendt, Friedrich Hayek, the New Critics, and the American reception of Friedrich Nietzsche. These figures in postwar cultural life invoked aestheticism in the arenas of literature, philosophy, political action, and economics as a prophylactic to the perceived intrusions of an activist-managerial state.

scholarly journals Programa Bracero y Guerra Fría: auge y declive, 1942–1964

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-35
Author(s):  
Catherine Vézina
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
National Context ◽  
World War ◽  
Bracero Program ◽  
Agricultural Work ◽  
Pan American ◽  
Second World

El Programa Bracero, creado por Estados Unidos y México en 1942 durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, se mantuvo hasta 1964. Los estudios sobre este programa señalan la importancia de los intereses domésticos de Estados Unidos para explicar la longevidad del mismo. El presente artículo se enfoca en los factores estratégicos propios de la lógica de la Guerra Fría que intervinieron en la decisión de mantener o cancelar este programa bilateral de trabajo temporal agrícola. Mediante un examen atento sobre la época del auge y del declive del programa, se replantean estos debates dentro del contexto nacional, pero también bilateral y panamericano. The Bracero Program, created by the United States and Mexico during the Second World War, survived until 1964. Studies that look at this program generally signal the importance of domestic factors in the United States to explain its longevity. This article analyzes dynamics of Cold War logic that played a role in the decision of whether to maintain or cancel this bilateral program for migratory agricultural work. By carefully examining the rise and fall of the program, these debates are reconsidered within a national context, as well as one that is bilateral and Pan-American.

United States Strategic Interests in Latin America: An Assessment

1997 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert R. Coll
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin America ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Economic Prosperity ◽  
World War ◽  
Long Run ◽  
The Us ◽  
Areas Of Concern ◽  
Second World

As of 1997, the United States faces an unprecedented degree of security, stability, and economic prosperity in its relations with Latin America. Never before have US strategic interests in Latin America been as well-protected or have its prospects seemed, at least on the surface, so promising. Yet while the US strategic interests are in better shape — militarily, politically, and economically — this decade than at any time since the end of the Second World War, some problems remain. Over the long run, there is also the risk that old problems, which today seem to have ebbed away, will return. Thus, the positive tone of any contemporary assessment must be tempered with an awareness of remaining areas of concern as well as of possible future crises.

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