ABSTRACT
Imperialism is a distant, obscure concept to most social studies students. Whether related to the Balkan origins of World War I, the British experience with Ghandi in India, or the rise of nationalism throughout colonial Africa, the intellectual interest of young Americans is rarely piqued by tales about European subjugations of distant, underdeveloped countries. However, history teachers can utilize the American experience of cultural and economic dominance in postwar Great Britain to define and illustrate the process of non-political hegemony. During the middle of this century, American music was overwhelmingly accepted in the United Kingdom as the standard of contemporary popular art. Commercial readings from the States dotted British music charts from 1953 until the mid-1960s. Then things changed. The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and hundreds of other British beat groups found their ow rT distinctive voices. The post-1964 era of the British Invasion saw the U.K. record charts listing Liverpool musicians in the Top Ten, while Billboard and Cash Box Hot 100 listings also featured more and more hits by British groups. How did the American cultural imperialism of the fifties get turned around? What factors enabled British artists to emerge as celebrities of international rank? The following bibliographic outline suggests a teaching format for examining this brief incident of cultural[imperialism.
