Americanization and Anti-Americanism in Poland

This essay explores Polish exceptionalism vis-à-vis both Americanization and anti-Americanism. It argues that this is evident during the Cold War period as well as in the post-Cold War eras (1945-1989 and 1989-present). It examines Poland’s experience adapting U.S. cultural influences and how it differs from most of its European counterparts. This essay focuses on how U.S. culture entered Poland, especially through music, literature, film, sport, and popular culture, in the years between 1945 and 2006. Not surprisingly, it also entails forms of resistance to U.S. culture, and thereby examines forms of anti-Americanism in Poland during this lengthy period.