Atlantic Transfers: Recent Work on the German-American Exchange
University of Iowa
h-penny{at}uiowa.edu
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Abstract |
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Recent work on the German–American exchange has demonstrated that relationships between Germans and Americans have most often been characterized by extended interactions between groups that were themselves in flux, by the insecurity of situational identity, and by cultural interconnections that were almost always as strong, if not stronger, than the oppositions. This essay explores some of that work, paying particular attention to the exceptional transitional moments in German–American relationships and the collection of reoccurring configurations, enduring distinctions, and consistencies that defined them. It also draws out the importance of hybridity in the character of the German-speaking world that extended across the Atlantic into the United States.
Keywords: German-American relations, Americanization, anti-Americanism, transnationalism, cultural transfers, Atlantic community, German identity
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