America in the British Imagination

How was American culture disseminated into Britain? Why did many British citizens embrace American customs? And what picture did they form of American society and politics? This engaging and wide-ranging history explores these and other questions about the U.S.'s cultural and political influence on British society in the post-World War II period.

"Lyons presents a sweeping analysis of the impact of American culture on British society. Denim Jeans, James Dean, Bowling Alleys, Elvis Presley, Henry Ford, Hamburgers, Soul Music, and Ronald Reagan are all here in a sophisticated synthesis of the ways in which individuals, products, trends, images, myths and dreams shaped the identities of a diverse range of British icons from the Beatles to Margaret Thatcher." - Keith Gildart, Professor of Labour and Social History, University of Wolverhampton, UK and author of Images of England through Popular Music: Class, Youth and Rock 'n' Roll, 1955-1976 (2013) "Lyons offers us a genuinely original, important, and broad-ranging look at the impact of the United States on postwar Great Britain. How America influenced Britain in the realms of economics, culture, foreign policy, and politics is one of his tasks; how different groups of Britons conservatives, left-wingers, intellectuals, and ordinary people, among others - responded to that influence over time is the other. Drawing on innumerable voices across the political and demographic spectrum, Lyons has produced a book on British hostility, admiration, and ambivalence toward American power, society, and influence that is a sophisticated, engaging, and highly readable." - Eric Arnesen, Professor of History, The George Washington University, USA "Why is David Bowie 'Bowie'? Or Ring 'Ringo'? All this and more we learn from John Lyons's witty survey of the US cultural bombardment of Britain since VJ Day. The romp includes McDonald's, Elvis, Dallas, Oprah even Milton Friedman. En route to a shrewd analysis of globalization's impact on the Tight Little Island, Lyons astutely and wittily depicts US cultural influences and Britain's never-passive reception of them." - Richard Fried, author of The Russians are Coming! (1999)

John F. Lyons is Professor of History at Joliet Junior College, USA. His previous books include Teachers and Reform: Chicago Public Education, 1929-70 (2008) and Teaching History Online (2009).