Abstract

From Frank Lloyd Wright to Robert Rauschenberg, Americans have borrowed freely from non-American cultures. Yet cultural imperialism is traditionally discussed in terms of an imposition of cultural values by rich or Western countries upon poorer or non-Western societies. While the concept certainly applies from the Age of Exploration to the aftermath of World War II, it should be reevaluated in light of increasingly influential non-Western economies. For the United States, a major exporter of popular and high culture, the issue is particularly pertinent. American children and young adults consume Anime and Manga in defiance of alleged American ethnocentrism. Signs in Arabic script are commonplace in large and medium urban centers in spite of a supposed “clash of civilizations.” Do these phenomena signal greater tolerance and cultural maturity or are they merely an expansion of a process that began when the first Yankee merchants sailed from Boston in search of Asian goods? This paper will address these questions from the standpoint of visual communications at a time when the United States struggles to find its place in a volatile global environment.