If one were to trust this statement made in 1960 by the Bourbon Institute, there might be good grounds for reversing the classical dominant narrative on the postwar Americanization of Italy and considering, rather, the parallel Italianization of American society, or, more properly, for reframing the Americanization narrative as a two-way process defined by mutual influences and exchanges. The Bourbon Institute article, in fact, goes on to argue that “we have so many tastes in common with Italians that we believe they might find a welcome for one of our great traditions. It's called Bourbon Whiskey and in the United States it is a social institution” (Trade with Italy 1960h). Bringing to the forefront Americans’ increasing enthusiasm for Italian products and styles was thus intended to support the further spread of American products and “great traditions.” American items could easily spread in Italy, it was argued, because Italians and...
Consuming Italian: Transatlantic Actors and Infrastructures of Italian Exports to Postwar America, 1957–1962
GIULIA CRISANTI holds a PhD in modern history from Fordham University. She is a postdoctoral researcher at the University La Sapienza in Rome, where she works on the PRIN 2020 project “ATLas—Atlante delle Televisioni Locali.” From June 2021 to March 2023, she worked as a research fellow at the University of Gastronomic Sciences on the project “Transatlantic Transfers: The Italian Presence in Postwar America” (PRIN 2017). She is also an adjunct lecturer in US history at the University of Pisa. Her research interests include the history of Italy-US relations and cultural exchanges, business history, and processes of Americanization and globalization with a focus on the United States and Western Europe, media history, and food history. She recently published Europeans Are Lovin’ It? Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Responses to American Global Businesses in Italy and France, 1886–2015 (Brill, 2023), which received the Rob Kroes Publication Award. With Simone Cinotto, she edited the volume Un oceano di stile: Produzione e consumo di Made in Italy negli Stati Uniti del dopoguerra (Mimesis, 2023).
Giulia Crisanti; Consuming Italian: Transatlantic Actors and Infrastructures of Italian Exports to Postwar America, 1957–1962. Italian American Review 1 April 2024; 14 (1): 35–60. doi: https://doi.org/10.5406/26902451.14.1.03
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