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William Thomas Stead and His 1901 Vision of the Americanized World

from IV - Ideologia Americana or Americanism in Action: Impact of American Values

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2014

Jolanta Szymkowska-Bartyzel
Affiliation:
Jagiellonian University
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Summary

It is none the worse for that; most of the things we now possess began by being dreams.

Russel Lowell

William Thomas Stead was one of the most controversial, eccentric and charismatic figures of the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Commonly known as a controversial journalist and the author of many spiritualist publications and lectures, as well as a practitioner of spiritualistic techniques, Stead was an influential intellectual and visionary of his times. In his most valuable book, published in 1901, The Americanization of the World: or the Trend of the 20th Century, Stead analyses the place and role of the United States in his times, and forms predictions about the domination of the 20th century by Americans. This paper presents the figure of W.T. Stead and his vision of the “American Century.”

The beginnings and ends of some important periods have encouraged humanity not only to make certain summaries of the past, but also, perhaps principally, to make forecasts for the future. The forecasts are oft en of a prophetic nature, most frequently apocalyptic, which is certainly an expression of people's fears and uncertainties concerning the coming times. But our ancestors sometimes also looked to the future with optimism and hope.

One of these prophetic visions of the coming times is The Americanization of the World: or the Trend of the Twentieth Century, written by William Thomas Stead and published in 1901 both in England and the USA.

Type
Chapter
Information
The United States and the World
From Imitation to Challenge
, pp. 251 - 262
Publisher: Jagiellonian University Press
Print publication year: 2009

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