Estudios Norteamericanos (Conjunto con UAH)

Máster. Curso 2024/2025.

LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS EXPORTADOS: LA HISTORIA SOCIAL DE LA AMERICANIZACIÓN EN EL MUNDO - 608558

Curso Académico 2024-25

Datos Generales

SINOPSIS

COMPETENCIAS

Generales
1. Initiation to research methodology.
2. Familiarization with relevant debates and concepts in the field of international relations (Americanization, modernization, globalization, imperialism, development, cultural transmission).
3. Handling of reference bibliography and other written sources (magazines, journal articles, publications, archival documentation), audiovisual (documentaries, films) and on the web (web pages).
4. Ability to collect, analyze and present specialized information.
5. Promotion of participatory and reflective learning, in order to generate a critical and informed vision of international phenomena.
Específicas
1. Knowledge of the concepts associated with Americanization and of the different elements that were incorporated into this process.
2. To determine the most important phases of the global expansion of the United States and its main agents in each one of them.
3. To understand the internal factors (production strategies and business organization, advertising and marketing; mass consumption; close relationship between companies-universities-governments; popular culture, etc.) and external factors (opening of markets, competitiveness, international conflicts, formation and attraction of human capital, fascination of cultural and entertainment productions, etc.) that propelled the American influence.
4. To examine this process of Americanization through a case study (Spain), in order to analyze its main characteristics, most outstanding actors, mechanisms of diffusion and reception.
5. To learn how to search for information, to select and treat documentary sources, and to structure a research project related to the subject of the course.
6. To become familiar with the handling and analysis of diverse historical materials: political and economic, cultural and scientific texts; archival documentation; specialized press and magazines; documentaries and films; etc.
7. Develop the ability to write specialized reports or academic papers, as well as to present in public the methodology and results of personal or group work.
8. To foster autonomous learning, to develop scientific criticism and self-criticism, analysis and synthesis, teamwork and personal initiative.

ACTIVIDADES DOCENTES

Clases prácticas
42 hours
Otras actividades
Student autonomous learning hours: 83 horas
TOTAL
125 hours

Presenciales

1,5

No presenciales

3,5

Semestre

2

Breve descriptor:

The international influence of the United States, a phenomenon assimilated to the term Americanization, began to be seen from the first decades of the 20th century in Europe, with a clearer impact in the economic and cultural fields. A number of American companies and investors, associations, universities and philanthropic foundations became spokesmen for the American Way of Life. The decisive intervention of the State in this process and its collaboration with the private sector became more intense from the end of the 1930s, partly in response to the European crisis and the rise of fascism. After World War II, the United States was the architect of a Western security system designed to contain Soviet expansionism, initially centered in Europe but later extended to Asia and other regions of the planet. Linked to this strategic design, the United States was essential in post-war economic reconstruction, while at the same time propagating its methods of business management and organization; promoting cultural and scientific transfers; establishing human capital formation circuits; and serving as a model for the expansion of the consumer society. American leadership had to face, from its origins, the mobilization of sectors critical of its effects, which nurtured the ranks of cultural and political anti-Americanism. From the mid-1960s onwards, the Vietnam War and the fractures in American society eroded the country's international image, which has nevertheless maintained a leading role in the evolution of the world beyond the end of the Cold War, with Globalization being identified as a variant of Americanization.

Through the analysis of this phenomenon, the aim is to put students in contact with some of the keys to today's world. To this end, a historical review of the factors that drove the international presence of the United States, its survival and transformation throughout the twentieth century, together with its various effects, will be addressed. Finally, the impact of Americanization in Spain will be examined as a case study. 

The course will privilege participatory teaching, seeking the intervention of the students both in the debates initiated in the sessions and through content reinforcement activities (oral presentations, comments on texts and graphic material, viewing of documentaries and films, etc.). Likewise, we will try to combine the teacher's expositions with the intervention of other specialists in some of the sessions.

Requisitos

General admission requirements for the master's degree

Contenido

1. The idea of America. Americanization and other alleged implications: Modernization, Globalization, Anti-Americanism.
2. The "irresistible empire". The emergence of the United States as a socio-economic model.
3. Crisis of 1929, Great Depression and New Deal. The challenges of nationalism and fascism.
4. World War II and the attempt to establish a Pax Americana. Bretton Woods and the United Nations.
5. Cold War and crystallization of a bipolar order.
6. The cohesion of the Western bloc and the battle for the Hearts and Minds: propaganda, public diplomacy, mass culture.
7. Modernization made in USA. Nation-building processes in the Third World, Vietnam War and resistance to "cultural imperialism". Dissolution of the Soviet bloc, expansion of neo-liberalism and telematic revolution Towards the end of history?
8. From Hollywood to CNN.
9. The road to the White House. The globalization of the political and electoral model of the United States.
10. The American Century, Reloaded. The American model in the digital era: power, seduction and rejection.
11. From Cuba to the Gran Vía. The United States and Spain in the early decades of the 20th century: stereotypes, commercial interests and intellectual networks.
12. "Welcome Mr. Marshall"? The American friend before Franco's dictatorship. Democratic Spain facing a polemic link: Atlanticism and Europeanism, model or counter-model.
13 and 14. Presentation of final papers in class.

Evaluación

Evaluation systems:

- Continuous Evaluation. Includes practices (individual and collective). Valuation: 60% of the final grade. Together with the elaboration and presentation of an individual or team work. Valuation: 40% of the final grade.

- Final evaluation. If the student does not participate in the continuous evaluation, he/she will have the option to take a final essay exam (2 hours) on one of the subjects of the course.

Calculation of the grade in the case of continuous evaluation:

.- 30 %: Attendance and active participation of the student both in the presentation and critical commentary of the readings indicated for each session.

.- 30 %: Intervention in the debates and activities planned throughout the course (30%).

.- 40 Final evaluation: oral and written presentation of an individual or team work (40%). It will be presented and discussed in the last sessions of the course on one of the contents of the course previously agreed with the teacher (around 3000 words maximum).

Calculation of the grade in the case of only final evaluation: score obtained the exam.



Evaluation criteria:

-Active participation in classroom discussions.
-Ability of observation and analysis.
-Knowledge and correct use of the terminology and the fundamental processes contained in the syllabus and worked throughout the course.
-Ability to present and develop an argument in a clear, orderly, coherent and precise manner. In the case of written papers, the conventions of academic essay writing will be followed.

Bibliografía

FONER, E. (2014), Give Me Liberty! An American History, New York, W. W. Norton & Co.
KERNELL, S. (2016), The Logic of American Politics, Thousand Oaks, CA, CQ Press.
NIÑO, A. (2012), La americanización de España, Madrid, Los Libros de la Catarata.
MAUK, D. (2014), American Civilization: An Introduction, New York, Routledge.
POWELL, C. (2011), El amigo americano. España y Estados Unidos de la dictadura a la democracia, Madrid, Galaxia Gutenberg.
SPANIER, J. (2016), American Foreign Policy since WWII, Washington DC, CQ Press.

Otra información relevante

The information in this sheet does not replace the course syllabus, which is the document where activities, material, readings and thematic content will be specified.

During the first week of class, the syllabus will be handed out in the classroom and will also be available on the virtual campus of the course.

Estructura

MódulosMaterias
No existen datos de módulos o materias para esta asignatura.

Grupos

Clases teóricas y/o prácticas
GrupoPeriodosHorariosAulaProfesor
Grupo T27/01/2025 - 09/05/2025JUEVES 18:00 - 21:00-