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Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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I was going to say 'western' culture, but really, both of these nations have influenced world culture. It's pretty hard to really say definitively, America has probably had the most influence in the past 50 years through the reach and power of the mass media, but Britain continues to be very influential, especially in the English speaking world and in Commonwealth countries. Take music. While America gave us blues, jazz, rock'n'roll etc, many of the greatest rock and pop grounds like the Beatles, Stones, Led Zep, originated from Britain.
In terms of literature, while in the past 200 years Britain has produced Jane Austen, Dickens, H.G.Wells, George Orwell, C.S.Lewis etc (not talking Shakespeare or anyone pre 1800), the US has produced Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck and poets like T.S.Elliott and Emily Dickinson.
In terms of science/technology it's an even-keel: the US has Ben Franklin, Thomas Edison, while the UK has people like Alexander Graham Bell. It's not just about names, however. I think both nations have led the world since the mid 19th century. The Industrial revolution kicked off in Britain, France and Belgium, but many of the advancements occured in the US as well like the cotton gin and the standardization of the factory production line.
Nowadays I don't think culture is as totally American-dominated as some people fear. The Brits are still exporting alot of culture, celebs (anti-culture, perhaps?), to the world including the States.
Anyway, thought this might be an interesting, if not very objective debate. Feel free to be as passionate as you like, as long as you keep to the topic and don't start a country vs country flamewar.
The UK for sure. The UK gave the world Rudyard Kipling and King Arthur: The US gave the world Ronald McDonald and Mickey Mouse. Who do you think the world will still be talking about in a hundred years?
The UK for sure. The UK gave the world Rudyard Kipling and King Arthur: The US gave the world Ronald McDonald and Mickey Mouse. Who do you think the world will still be talking about in a hundred years?
I think Mickey Mouse will be still talked about in 100 years as well King Arthur.
I think the UK influenced the world the most when the British Empire was in control of many places. But after the fall of the British Empire, the American culture influenced the world more.
I'm English but would have to say the US. Things like Harry Potter, Manchester United and the Beatles are very well known worldwide and probably will be for many years to come but American pop culture and brands have a far more pervasive influence by their sheer ubiquity and quantity, and because they are so aggressively marketed. Depends on what you mean by culture, I suppose. The US is five times more populated than us, and geographically at least there are 77 bigger countries than us in the world (I've even met people in central America who thought we were actually a part of the USA) so I think I can feel contented that Britain only has the second largest cultural 'industry' in the world. It'll be very interesting to me to see if India and China can have such a cultural influence on the rest of the world in the future the way the US and UK have done. My money is that they won't.
The U.S.A. for sure and not for the best as in supermarkets, hypermarkets, shopping malls, take out food, junk food. Clothes, base ball caps, big hair, mullet hair. and much more.
The question was "greatest contribution(s)," not "most." "Most" the U.S. would win in a landslide. Ditto science/tech, but I wouldn't really call that "cultural contributions."
Unfortunately, much of what the U.S. has produced, esp recently, is crapola on a massive scale, but still, they get the nod. Musically the Brits did produce some of the all-time musical and literary greats, but the U.S. has produced many more on most if not all fronts. That's not meant to be "anti-Brit" though, just an .02
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,544 posts, read 56,047,835 times
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The US in the past 200 years has contributed far more to culture more than Hollywood, fast food, Mickey Mouse etc, although that came to define US culture from the early 20th century. Because of the cross-cultural interchange as well it can be hard to wholly credit some things to one country, i.e. pop music and the Beatles. I think both have had a huge global influence though because of the dominance of the Anglosphere, but the US more directly in the past 60 years.
We, as in the UK, are one of most influential countries in world history. The US is not.
Look at it this way. We still are influenced by Roman and classical Greek culture, in terms of political ideals, law, language, etc. This is why perhaps ancient Rome is the greatest civilisation ever. I think the USA only exports pop culture, but nothing other than that. Has the USA exported political principles, legal principles, language, etc. Yet, there are a number of countries that maintain UK political systems, speak English as their first/official language, are based on English common law, etc. I take that back though, since the USA did give us ICT, which obviously has an extremely marked effect on the world today, and perhaps forever.
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) so I think I can feel contented that Britain only has the second largest cultural 'industry' in the world. It'll be very interesting to me to see if India and China can have such a cultural influence on the rest of the world in the future the way the US and UK have done. My money is that they won't.
