West Germans Against the West

West Germans against the West explores the way in which the theme of Anti-Americanism was employed by influential sections of the WestGerman media to oppose the modernisation of the Federal Republic of Germany during the 'long 1950s'. In the public battle over the future direction of Germany, America stood as a symbol of social, political and economic corruption. This fascinating case study of a transformation process from fascist dictatorship to liberal democracy slots into the ongoing debate about the nature of modernisation in West Germany and is a valuable contribution to the field of study.

ISBN	0230231551	Pages	272
ISBN13	9780230231559 (What's this?)	Weight (grammes)	431
Publisher	Palgrave Macmillan	Published in	Basingstoke
Imprint	Palgrave Macmillan	Series title	Palgrave Studies in the History of the Media
Format	Hardback	Height (mm)	222
Publication date	21 May 2010	Width (mm)	141
DEWEY	943.087	Spine width (mm)	20
DEWEY edition	DC22	Academic level	Tertiary education

	Acknowledgements
	List of Abbreviations
1	Introduction	1
1.1	General introduction	1
1.2	Early visits to the USA	17
2	Vergangenheitsbewaltigung at the Expense of the United States	22
2.1	The American occupation of Germany	28
2.2	US war crimes? Atomic bombs and the Morgenthau Plan	44
2.3	Indianer and Neger and other dark chapters in US history or politics	54
3	Rejection of the Republic-Democracy and Capitalism	62
3.1	The Rejection of American-style democracy	63
3.1.1	áDie Erste Legion'	66
3.1.2	Anti-liberal thought: Carl Schmitt and the Weimar Republic	74
3.1.3	Anti-liberal thought: Carl Schmitt and his followers in the FRG	80
3.2	The reaction against the alleged economic Americanisation	89
3.2.1	The internationalisation of trade and its enemies	92
3.2.2	Shopping in America: distaste for the consumer society (or Fordism on shelves)	98
3.3	áNeither Moscow nor Wall Street'-Germany between East and West	104
4	Hedonism and Equality	120
4.1	The post-war legacy: Ami-Madels and Veronicas	122
4.2	Hollywood and Heimatfilme	126
4.2.1	Cinema, sexuality and crime	129
4.2.2	Heimatfilm as the counter-image to áAmerica'	134
4.3	Television, bad taste and cultural superficiality	137
	More...

"In this excellent historical-cultural study, Muller takes a closer look at the 'long 1950s' and shows convincingly that anti-American attitudes were not just at the fringes but pretty much at the heart of West Germany's emerging political culture. Coming to terms with the past, West German politicians and intellectuals struggled with the supposed 'deeper' meanings of the relationship between democracy, capitalism and culture." --Andreas Hess, "Times Higher Education"

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Anti-Americanism in Media and Public Opinion in the Federal Republic of

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