Why do so many Europeans and British especially believe the US is only Anglo-Saxon. (how much, bankrupt)
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It was, but Prussia and Bavaria became filthy rich too, and from there people emigrated. Wealth was still very defined by strata, so an young son getting scraps from the inheritance but seeing his brother become wealthy was a big motivation to leave and try his luck in America.
It'd be interested to see inequality comparisons back then: between European countries or the US. Except for Ireland, my impression is the poorest didn't emigrate — too expensive. More concentrated of those in the middle of the income strata.
I remember reading about WWII and it said that one of the biggest benefits post war Europe got from the war, despite the war being terrible and bloody and bringing a huge deal of suffering to Europeans, was that it eliminated the terrible inequalities Europe historically suffered from. It also eased ethnic tensions all over the continent.
Well, yeah, makes sense. It forced Europeans to work together and strive towards some semblance of equality. Obviously Europe took advantage of the postwar era and built much better societies, with prosperity an expectation, not a hope.
There were some horrible other effects, though. Eastern Europe is probably permanently behind Western Europe, thanks to the Cold War. The postwar worker shortage led to imported "guest workers" which has made national identity much more complicated/obtuse. European economic growth rates, for decades now, are lagging compared to the other developed parts of the world. Birthrates are a major issue. The EU is being seriously tested.
You're white, educated and certainly upper middle-class. You live in a different world from those living in the hillside slums in your very city.
The US in the late 19th century wasn't particularly equal, either. Big northern cities with a high volume of immigrants led to overcrowding and drove down to wages while huge fortunes were made at the top
American culture is too broad and diverse to be simplified as just Anglo culture. I spent time in Britain and the cultural differences are truly obvious!
American culture is very influenced by many different cultures and all of these influences have become so common and so much part of the American identity that they are pretty subtle and you only notice them when you go abroad to the UK and you realize America has a lot of cultural things that British simply do not have or know!
!
I think that to truly know a country, you have to live there.
Well, yeah, makes sense. It forced Europeans to work together and strive towards some semblance of equality. Obviously Europe took advantage of the postwar era and built much better societies, with prosperity an expectation, not a hope.
There were some horrible other effects, though. Eastern Europe is probably permanently behind Western Europe, thanks to the Cold War. The postwar worker shortage led to imported "guest workers" which has made national identity much more complicated/obtuse. European economic growth rates, for decades now, are lagging compared to the other developed parts of the world. Birthrates are a major issue. The EU is being seriously tested.
Truly read "Savage Continent" by Keith Lowe!
It's a recollection of accounts by Soldiers, UN workers, Europeans, volunteers who got to witness post-war Europe between 1945 when the war ended up until the mid 50's.
It was a terrible place to be!
-Females being gang raped by soldiers was so common that it was seen as normal to hear females screaming at night in many cities all over Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Belgium etc.
-The entire continent was almost entirely composed of women, old people and children, as most men between the ages of 15 to 60 were dead, or missing, or disabled, or captured in a Soviet Gulag somewhere!
- Hordes of thousands of homeless orphan children vandalizing entire cities and stabbing people to steal their belongings.
- Bombs that had failed to explode in many cities suddenly would blow up
- Famine killing thousands of Greeks, Italians, Spaniards, Dutch!
- Women and young girls selling their bodies to soldiers for food!
- Soviet soldiers had the right to terrorize, attack, shoot anyone at any moment, especially if they were Germans.
- Horrendous pay backs towards ethnic Germans all over the soviet union, Eastern Europe, The Benelux
- Cities that were so destroyed they became ghost towns!
It touches on the touchy topic of post-war female rape and how many Jews became the directors of camps that were supposed to gather the ethnic Germans in order to transport them to the occupied Germany and out of the foreign lands they inhabited. Apparently the Jews were thirsty for pay back and they gave it to the Germans concentration camp style while the Soviets and the Allies looked the other way!
I was especially surprised to read that the Germans had blown a lot of the dikes in the Netherlands and as a result almost 40% of the Dutch countryside was under shallow water up until 1948!
Yes but speaking English does not make on an Anglo! If that is the case then All the Italian-Americans, Latinos, Blacks who speak only English then could also be called Anglos!
American culture is too broad and diverse to be simplified as just Anglo culture. I spent time in Britain and the cultural differences are truly obvious!
American culture is very influenced by many different cultures and all of these influences have become so common and so much part of the American identity that they are pretty subtle and you only notice them when you go abroad to the UK and you realize America has a lot of cultural things that British simply do not have or know!
If anything, the UK borrows from American culture than the other way around!
I didn't say speaking English is what made them Anglo. I said they were fully assimilated. Those two things don't mean the same thing.
It's a recollection of accounts by Soldiers, UN workers, Europeans, volunteers who got to witness post-war Europe between 1945 when the war ended up until the mid 50's.
It was a terrible place to be!
Thanks, I will try and find this book. Sounds like a fascinating read!
I do know a fair amount of the post WW2 history, though, as my family lived it. Even though most of my relatives who lived it have passed on, I heard the stories as a child.
I had family members who were raped in Stuttgart, a family member who was a nun in training who was burned to death in a convent near Cologne (when the British did their terror-bombing), there were mass suicides of young women, as the Russians entered villages (to avoid mass rapes), I had a great-uncle soldier captured in Stalingrad and sent to the work camps in Siberia (had to walk home to German in the 1950's after Adenauer secured their release; and he lost an ear and arm to frostbite along the way - family members assumed he was dead until 1952).
Even my dad, who was born in 1947, played a role. When the French soldiers came door-to-door, trying to take all valuables, my grandfather hid his best wine in the baby crib, underneath my newborn father. But the French and U.S. soldiers were generally pretty decent, according to my relatives. No raping or pillaging; they just took your animals, crops, and wine. They would even share cigarettes with the German villagers.
It'd be interested to see inequality comparisons back then: between European countries or the US. Except for Ireland, my impression is the poorest didn't emigrate — too expensive. More concentrated of those in the middle of the income strata.
The income disparity was its highest during the free market industrialisation. To add, there were hardly any pensions or social security. Bismarck was quite a revolutionary in this regard.
Even if it was before the peak of the industrial revolution, J. H. Heidenstrauch was the richest man in Helsinki and at a point it was estimated that his net worth was bigger than all of the other citizens combined. His house was bought by Russia to become the royal palace in Helsinki, now the Presidental Palace. And this was during an era where normal workers in the city could afford beef once a week.
My grandfathers siblings can be considered being in the middle class then, but as the oldest son inherited the business, others were left with scraps, but had the funds to emigrate. True there. The poor were too poor to even get across the Atlantic.
NOLA, it is so interesting! It's hard to digest many of those who experienced such terror and savagery are alive today. It occurred within a human lifespan!
There is a part of the book that narrates on how they had to ration food in the UK, so hunger was starting to take a toll. Well apparently many English would gather around Victoria Station in London to beg for food because that is where a lot of soldiers would go to meet and take the trains to other parts of the UK or to Dover to be shipped into the continent.
One time a Canadian soldier felt so bad he threw some bread into crowd and the crowd went wild, rioting, fighting, pushing, attacking one another just to get a piece of the bread he threw into the crowd, females were pushed, children ran over, men would punch one another... all for some bread! It got so wild the London Police and the army had to come and start shooting into the air!
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