1. An Overview of America Compared: Short Summaries of Selected Chapters by Terry Onley
2. The Rise of Big Business in the United States,Great Britain, and Japan
3. “Buck” Duke, owner of the American Tobacco Company, used the newBonsack cigarette machine to steamroller his competition at the turn of the century. By 1910, his company had 86% of US cigarette sales. Big Businessin the US atthat time washard, fast, andmean… It’s notlike thattoday, right?
4. Like other large businesses of the day in Great Britain, Imperial Tobacco Company was slower to adapt the new,more fiercely competitive business practices of their UScounterparts. They feared widespread unemployment fromthe new machines, and it all seemed rather impolite. Japanese big businesses grew on the zaibatsu model, like a big, well-interwoven family business. Small companies like Mitsubishi rode the groundswell of Japanese industrialexpansion, and became giants. The net effect was more subdued than in the United States. American Tobacco Company was dissolved in an anti-trust suit in 1911 into several smaller, equally rapacious companies.
5. Now, girls, even if they are toasted, you still can’t smoke ‘em in the theatre… Americans, Europeans, and the Movies
6. 1920s 0r so Greta Garbo They made us laugh, they madeus cry, they madeus squirm in ourseats and sigh…THE MOVIES!! With all our favoriteactors and actresses…
7. Many of these early romantic filmsmade excellent use of the talents of European film stars, such as RudolphValentino, and the stunning PolaNegri His dog didnot consider him effeminate Wow! The American film-going public found the European stars to be more, well, sexy, although many American men denouncedValentino as being effeminate.The ladies loved him… a very graceful man
9. Much of the American anti-Japanese propagandaduring WWII depicted the Japanese as myopic,buck-toothed rats. There was a general tendencyto denigrate the Japanese people as a whole,although Hirohito was frequently depicted. Oddly, almostall anti-Germanpropagandafeatured onlyHitler himself.
10. Much domestic Japanese propaganda of the day addressed thedelight of a Pan-Asian Pacific, free from the overbearing influenceof the USA and Great Britain. Americanswere oftendepicted aspoliticalfat-cats, orsometimes as terrifying demons.Same thing, right?
11. Revolution in the 1770s In the 1940s-50s-60s-70s Imperial Responses to Revolutionin Colonial America and Vietnam
12. In the 1770s, North American colonists rebelled against Great Britain’s imperialist rule. We won.Great Britain lost. We were against imperialism. It felt good…
13. From the 1950s to the 1970s, the USA fought against North Vietnam… They had rebelled against imperialist French rule, and after they successfully drove the French out, we fought them… They won. We lost. We were imperialists… It didn’t feel so good… probably because we lost.
14. Globalization: “The removal of barriers to free trade and the closer integration of national economies” (Joseph Stieglitz: Globalization and its Discontents, p. IX) Globalization and American Power
15. The pace of Globalization withthe USA in the forefront hasincreased tremendously inthe last few decades. Never before have so many placesin the world been so tightlyconnected, so similar inso many ways There has been a cost to theUS job market, many ITrelated positions have beenoutsourced to other countries,many factories built elsewhere,but we get cheap shoes andTVs, and the wealthy just keep getting wealthier. All is well…
16. Yet, many feel that the UShas forced its form of“Coca-Cola” globalization on the rest of the worldfar too fast, and thinkwe need to back off abit, and not take undueadvantage of ourposition of power, whichappears to be waning,anyway.Probably a good idea. Now, if we can just convince those rich, powerful industrialists and financiers… The End
