The Jeremiad Over Journalism

As a part of Washington‘s conscious strategy to influence European society, the interdisciplinary
field of American Studies became, ―an essential component of Washington cultural diplomacy.‖ 334
Some of the most gifted early scholars within the field had personally served in the Second World
War and believed strongly in the ideals upon which the United States was founded, which in turn
led to a ―consensus‖ view of American society in their scholarly work. 335 Through the writings and
visiting lectures of scholars like F.O. Matthiesen, Henry Nash Smith, and Leo Marx, Europeans
were told the story of ―an essentially holistic, affirmative, nationalistic project primarily aimed at
identifying and documenting the distinctive features of the culture and society chiefly created by
white European settlers in the territory now comprising the US.‖ 336
To the Danes who grew up in the 1940s and 1950s, the United States was therefore mainly depicted
as a homogeneous society, partly because of the glorified pictures presented by the cinema, radio
and newspapers, but also because the American government actively supported this notion through
a wide variety of channels, including academia. One future academic whose views were shaped
largely by the American influence in the 1950‘s and 1960‘s was Jan Gretlund, who is currently an
authority on American literature in the South.
―To a large extent Danes born in the forties, as I was, were produced by the imported culture.
Our cartoons were Donald Duck, Little Orphan Annie, Dick Tracy, and Superman (…) Later
our hero was John F. Kennedy. And suddenly, our food was Kentucky Fried chicken, burgers,
fries, and Cokes, and our clothes were T-shirts, sweatshirts and jeans. Things American
dominated our childhood and youth and as adults we remain in the ambicultural state where
most of the concepts in our consciousness are American imports.‖ 337
334
Pells, Not Like Us: How Europeans Have Loved, Hated, and Transformed American Culture since World War II.
Page 95.
335
Leo Marx, "On Recovering The "Ur" Theory of American Studies," American Literary History 17, no. 1 (2005).
Page 119-121. See also Günther Bischoff, "Two Sides of the Coin: The Americanization of Austria and Austrian Anti-
Americanism," in The Americanization of Europe, ed. Alexander Stephan (New York: Berghan Books, 2006). Page
159-161.
336
Marx, "On Recovering The "Ur" Theory of American Studies." Page 119-121.
337
Jan Gretlund, "The American Within: Danes and American Literature," in As Others Read Us: International
Perspectives on American Literature, ed. Huck Gutman (Amherst: The University of Massachussets Press, 1991). Page
66.
101