Word: americanization
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...20th century was the American century, the 1990s--bracketed by demonstrations of overwhelming American power in Kuwait and Kosovo--were the supreme American decade. How supreme? No other nation has exercised such military, economic, diplomatic and cultural reach since Rome. And Rome's world was little more than the Mediterranean...
...American triumph in the '90s came as a rude surprise to some. Only a decade ago, Paul Kennedy's The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers ushered in the conventional wisdom that America, suffering from "imperial overstretch," was in decline. With the collapse of the Soviet Empire, it was assumed that the world would go from cold war bipolarity to multipolarity. After all, was not Japan flourishing, Europe unifying, China rising...
...main reason for the absence of a serious challenge to American hegemony is that it is so benign. It does not extract tribute. It does not seek military occupation. It is not interested in acquiring territory--indeed, it specializes in giving it up, as shown in the Philippines and Panama. Economically, the world has prospered under the open trading system the U.S. supports. And culturally, America is a hit. Arnold is a universal icon. Latvians like their Levi's. And everyone loves McDonald...
...film) has been idling, to try persuading the lad to return home to the family business. Tom agrees, sails to Europe and, on seeing Dickie, is dazzled by his luscious indolence. Dickie paints, indifferently; he tans, splendidly; and he flirts with Marge (Paltrow), a young American who has a crush on him. Dickie is an effortless charmer who enjoys watching people try to charm him, and Tom is up to the challenge. "Dickie inherited wealth, looks and privilege," says Minghella. "Ripley inherited nothing and has nothing. He so much wants the life that Dickie has that he'll do anything...
...look at Alain Delon (the delicate stud of Purple Noon) or Dennis Hopper (who gave Ripley a cowboy swagger in the 1977 The American Friend, Wim Wenders' adaptation of Ripley's Game) and see an actor sharpening his tools: the attentiveness, the useful smile, the waiting for a cue to make his move. Ripley watches Dickie, and an actor prepares. We watch the actor playing Ripley and learn the secrets of his duplicitous craft. It's as if a famous seducer had made a how-to video...