Description
After WWII, policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic tried to lure US tourists to travel to Western Europe. US tourism would aid European recovery in strengthening a transatlantic capitalist system to oppose the Communist “East” in fighting the Cold War. However, there was more at stake in the branding of tourism than merely the transatlantic circulation of dollars: the tourism industry was the perfect vehicle to promote “the West” as a new geopolitical category. Through the fabrication of a tourist dreamworld, policymakers, advertising agencies, corporations, and the culture industry reshaped “the West” as an imaginary space, entailing specific notions on the history of “Western civilization”, shared contemporaneous morals and values, and ideals for the future. This paper analyzes the wider cultural production of the tourist imaginary about Western Europe to reveal how “the West” was reinvented and influenced the experiences and expectations of both armchair and real travelers.
About the Speaker
Aimée Plukker is a PhD Candidate in History at Cornell University, where she will defend her dissertation in the Spring of 2026 titled: Europe Calling: Cold War US Tourism and the Production of "the West." Her work has been published in Radical History Review, Journal of Material Culture, and various anthologies. She is also the Reviews Editor of the Journal of Tourism History.
Respondent
Joanna Grisinger, Northwestern University
About the History of Capitalism Seminar Series
The History of Capitalism Seminar provides a works-in-progress forum for work from scholars at all levels. Proposals may consider a variety of subjects, including the history of race and racism, gender and feminist studies, intellectual history, political history, legal history, business history, the history of finance, labor history, cultural history, urban history, and agricultural history. Elizabeth Tandy Shermer (Loyola University Chicago) and Andrew Hartman (Illinois State University) are the co-coordinators of the seminar.
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This event is free, but all participants must register in advance. Space is limited, so please do not request a paper unless you plan to attend.
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