We can do little to escape the experience of the United States of America through many media: TV, pop music, youth culture, Hollywood, fast food. How do these traces and images affect us? Do we internalize them, want to be American? Do we (can we?) resist them? Is our desire for them a symptom of European pop culture's crisis? From black face minstrelsy, rap music and fiction to McDonald's, rock festivals and Star Trek, the cultural conception of America is critically unpacked by contributors from Europe, Israel and the USA. McKay rounds off the picture by offering a comprehensive introduction that explains theoretical approaches to Americanization from the thesis of Yankee cultural imperialism to America as site of liberation or fantasy.

"No, Dr. Zide, you may not inject my son's leg unless you do this chant." And for the next minute she chanted: 'Ah booh galla, rum das blah, blah, blah...' " Barry Zide, MD, New York. Every plastic surgeon has some good stories. This book is an anthology of some of the anecdotes from surgeons around the world. The book is dedicated to one of the great men in plastic surgery, Dr. Robert Goldwyn. As the editor of our journal, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, he has taught, commented, criticized and opined. His biting wit at times drove me to seek out Patty, my office manager, to share an editorial that simply had me howling with laughter. Satire, spoof, and serious commentary have been used to get his editorial point across. This book is therefore designed to honor this intellectual giant of a man in the language (stories), that he commands. All of the contributors are plastic surgeons, and all of the stories are true. The story of "Chu" was so moving, that the first half dozen times I recounted it to others, I was choked up to the point of tears. The anecdotes were collected into chapters that were little more than gross categorizations: Humor, Tragedy, Drama, and Poignant. The ensuing emotional roller-coaster afforded a look "Behind the Face of the Specialty" by reading the stories of the surgeons. All proceeds from this book will be donated to the Plastic Surgeons Education Foundation.

In this lively and provocative overview of postwar diplomacy in the region Robert Freeman Smith looks at the United States' relations with such countries as Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic, as well as the commonwealth of Puerto Rico, observing regional policy and developments within the larger context of the cold war's U.S.-Soviet rivalry. Smith's analysis is well documented yet anecdotal: he broadens the standard foreign-policy focus to include America's cultural and economic influence on the region (and vice versa) and observes how these exchanges have in turn affected political and strategic decisions. Smith begins with an encapsulated history of the region before 1945 - the Monroe Doctrine, the building of the Panama Canal, the deployment of U.S. Marines to various sites of strife, and FDR's Good Neighbor Policy.

The authors examine the globalization of American popular culture including movies, television, fast food, and popular music.

The 1965 U.S. intervention in the Dominican Republic remains a unique event: the only time the Organization of American States has intervened with force on a member state's territory. It is also a classic example of a U.S. military operation that drew in America's hemispheric allies. Finally, its outcome was that rare feat in the annals of diplomacy -- a peaceful political settlement of a civil war. Here for the first time is the full story of that action, as told by one of its leading participants. General Palmer was the U.S. Army's operations chief in Washington in April 1965 when the Dominican crisis broke, and was placed in command of U.S. forces deployed to the Republic. His perspective thus reflects both the perceptions of Washington officials and those of the U.S. commander on the scene. Palmer's instructions from President Johnson were to prevent another Cuba. Although the intervention remains controversial today, especially with Latin Americans, it was successful both politically and militarily, bringing unprecedented stability to the long-troubled Dominican Republic. The lesson Palmer draws is that success in such a venture comes only when political and military actions are orchestrated toward a common political goal. Palmer concludes with an assessment of the current situation in the broader Caribbean area, including a comparison of the 1965 Dominican and 1983 Grenadian interventions, and an analysis of the situation in Panama with its implications for the Canal Treaty. His book is a timely contribution to the history of the Caribbean that enlarges our understanding of this region's vital importance to the United States.