Jaap Kooijman is Associate Professor in Media Studies and American Studies at the University of Amsterdam.

"A brilliant, thoroughly enjoyable work of cultural critique, this book teaches us that interpreting the behemoth of American popular culture does not have to involve a polarized choice between naïve celebration and disgusted condemnation. Kooijman takes seemingly exhausted concepts like Americanization and turns them on their head. [...] He demonstrates just how flexible the signifiers of Americanness can be when they circulate globally, materializing in surprising forms across film, television, and other popular media."- Anna McCarthy, New York University

• Acknowledgments, Additional Acknowledgments, Introduction, 1. We Are the World, 2. The Oprahification of 9/11, 3. The Desert of the Real, 4. Americans We Never Were, 5. The Dutch Dream, 6. Yes We Can, This Is It, Conclusion, Afterword, Notes, Bibliography, Index