American Thought and Culture in the Twenty First Century

Will America come to own the twenty-first century? Will its power and ideas dominate the globe? Or will the United States buckle underneath the pressure of new international challenges?

This groundbreaking book looks at changing patterns of American thought and culture at the dawn of the new millennium, a time in which the world's richest nation has never been more powerful or controversial. The volume brings together eminent North American and European thinkers to investigate the crucial issues and challenges facing the United States. From the subterranean political shifts of the electoral landscape to the latest biomedical advances, from the literary response to 9/11 to the rise of reality television, this collection explores the political, social, and cultural contours of contemporary American life. It also places the United States within a global narrative of commerce, cultural exchange, international diplomacy, ideological conflict, and war. These eighteen original essays address leadership, foreign policy, propaganda, religion, health, technology, immigration, 9/11, and digital media. Locating the roots of our contemporary concerns, contributors revisit the Clinton years and even earlier periods of twentieth-century American history, while also looking forward to the potential conflicts of a global future and to the soaring possibilities of American enterprise and imagination.