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Historians should seek to understand Americanization without resort to perjoratives about cultural or economic imperialism. A better approach is to try to understand what it is about modernization that foreign cultures accept, and why.

Late 20th century intellectuals fretted about American cultural imperialism. However, the greater threat to local cultural integrity is probably world culture.

US economic power and cultural attraction had as much to do with winning the support of the European youth during the cold war as did political and military power. Media images propagated from Hollywood made an argument for an American way of life. Many Europeans wished to emulate the American ways. However, there was a dark side to the cultural imperialism. Many of those who best expressed the freedom of American culture, such as African American musicians, did not possess complete freedom or happiness in the US.

American culture in the 20th century has been exported around the globe. Iconic images of such Americana as McDonald's golden arches, Levi's jeans, Hollywood movie stars, and Marlboro cigarettes have been subsumed by the national consciousness of other nations. However, use of America's cultural images may take on a meaning outside the US different from the meaning inside the US.