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Making the World Like Us Education, Cultural Expansion, and the American Century

Liping Bu

Book Code: C7694

ISBN: 0-275-97694-7

ISBN-13: 978-0-275-97694-1

DOI:

304 pages, figures, tables

Praeger Publishers

Publication: 3/30/2003

List Price: $86.95 (UK Sterling Price: £49.95)

Availability: Print on demand

Media Type: Hardcover

Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4

Subjects:

Series Title: Perspectives on the Twentieth Century

Awards:

Academic Essentials-Education Academia September 2003

Reviews:

[T]his book is an extraordinarily informative and significant contribution to the scholarship on the cultural and educational dimensions of foreign policy.
—American Historical Review December 2004
[B]u makes an important contribution to the role of soft power in American foreign policy, a powerful component of America's national security state.
—The Journal of American History September 2004

Description: This is the first systemic investigation of the various efforts to promote the expansion of American culture via major religious, social, political and governmental institutions. Christian missionaries, secular cultural elite, and the government have served as three major forces pushing American cultural values and political idealism abroad, although each has emphasized different elements of Americanism--Christian beliefs, individualism, democracy, and free enterprise--in championing American leadership. In the course of American ascendance as an international power and a superpower, education caught the imagination of different groups as the means to shape individual views and world outlook from the American perspective. Major philanthropic enterprises have likewise hoped to encourage positive sentiment toward American influence. Education has served as the vehicle to train future world leaders who, acting as cultural agents of transmission, were expected to carry American values and ideas to their home countries. The exportation of American culture, however, encountered challenges as those future leaders experienced contradictions of the ideals they were taught to embrace in the daily life of American society. Moreover, different players emphasized different elements of Americanism in their educational endeavors. This study analyzes these challenges and the tensions inherent in the exportation of American cultural influence on a global level.

Table of Contents:

Preface
Introduction
Before World War II
Cultural Expansion: Missionary Thrust of an Ecumenical World
Cultural Internationalism: Educational Exchange and Cultural Understanding for World Peace
Liberal Visions in a Conservative Age: International House Movement
Educational Assistance for World Progress: Teachers College, Columbia University
After World War II
Changes in Govenment Cultural Policy and the Realignment of Private Forces in Worldwide Educational Exchange
Philanthropy in Cold War Cultural Diplomacy: The Ford Foundation and the New Profession of International Education
Educational Exchange and National Interest: The Role of the State
Selected Bibliography
Index

LC Card Number: 2002072819

LCC Class: LB2376

Dewey Class: 370


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