Following America’s presidential election, and the Battle for America strand at the Battle of Ideas festival in London on 1-2 November, Culture Wars is exploring the past, present and future of the USA by bringing together new and old reviews of books, films and more.

Europeans sometimes disdain the USA as the land of soulless materialism, religious fundamentalism, chronic obesity and high school shootings. But is there still something in the American idea to inspire the rest of the world in the 21st century? Does President-elect Obama represent a new dawn for the USA?

In hopeless emptiness

Revolutionary Road (2008), directed by Sam Mendes

The problem is that the Wheelers are an empty shell, remnants of a meaningful past of which they have no recollection. Their fight then is useless from the very outset, for it lacks any foundation.

The rise and fall of an agent of change

Milk (2008), directed by Gus Van Sant

The film unpicks the complex dynamic in the American political system that lead both to the rise and the inevitable fall of this charismatic agent of change. It is laden with the complexity of social dynamics within modern society through its depiction of a tragic inevitability.

All hail the President of the World?

US election blog - part seven

Obama managed some genuinely inspiring lines about the productivity of American workers and the inventiveness of American minds, but in the short term at least it is the borrowing power of the American state that he’ll be drawing on in a bid to recover the US economy, and by extension the world economy.

Gosh-darnit!

The Wrecking Crew: The American Right and the Lust for Power, by Thomas Frank (Harvill Secker)

Perhaps the most important problem with this book is that it has been overtaken by events. Not only the election but the recession exposed the hollowness of supposed economic libertarianism. Like the anxious pronouncements of fellow liberals before Obama’s election, this book now appears shrill and off-target.

New Cultural Paradigm: Community Art at the End of the Culture War

As the inauguration of President Obama marks the end of an era, what next for the arts?

Mass culture is now composed of an array of equally entitled subcultures connected through a ubiquitous techno-social environment of camera phones, social networking on the internet and cable television channels dedicated to specific audiences.

Power, politics and race

Street Fight (2005), directed by Marshall Curry

This may be Curry’s first feature-length documentary, but his handling of this ugliness is just as it should be. No dogmatic, Michael Moore-style commentary here; his effective interview technique and subtle editing allow the Newark electorate to speak through the film with an analysis of the situation that is succinct and enlightened.

Cushioned revolt

CSNY Déjà Vu (2008), directed by Neil Young

This is not a blasting nerve-wrecking stand, but a sort of community appeal against war. You are fused into the revolt, yet you are only marginally affected by the violence of war.

Obamanomics: the triumph of hope over imagination

US election blog - part six

Obama’s economic team is stacked with, er, economists. Bringing in ‘the experts’ is presented as preferable to being governed by ‘ideology’, but this is to put a lot of faith in the ‘dismal science’.

Concrete schoolyard

Gunnin' for That #1 Spot (2008), directed by Adam Yauch

You really feel for these boys; to live up to their dream they have to give up so much. Basketball is certainly not the answer for everything. These boys need life experience too. If they are not taught to lead a balanced life in their teens, how will they react when they start making serious money and they can afford to indulge in any temptation they want?

Waking up from the American Dream?

A Battles in Print essay

At present America is fighting various battles – some on the outside, some inside the country. For one, American militaries are operating in Afghanistan and Iraq, in Somalia, Georgia and Lebanon; further troops are stationed in Turkey, Kenya and South Korea. For the other, the United States quarrel with a presidential election, the credit crunch, gas prices, and decisions on abortion, gun laws and same-sex marriages.

Does reality have a liberal bias?

The New Blue Media: How Michael Moore, Moveon.Org, Jon Stewart and Company Are Transforming Progressive Politics, by Theodore Hamm (New Press)

What his book crucially lacks is an analysis of the other side, the rightwing radio talk shows, Fox news and the previously mentioned Bill O’Reilly. Especially as many of Hamm’s heroes are reacting to their success.

The accursed cultural theory, excess and the morbid imagination

Great Satan's Rage: American Negativity and Rap/metal in the Age of Supercapitalism by Scott Wilson (Manchester University Press, 2008)

Wilson sets the stage for a logical reconstruction of self loathing as it currently appears in the most advanced capitalist nation.

The puppy in the White House

US election blog - part five

A McCain victory would likely have reinforced illusions in ‘what might have been’, while the realities of an Obama administration are likely to be more sobering.

Unreal ethical realism

Ethical Realism. A Vision for America’s Role in the World, by Anatol Lieven and John Hulsman (Vintage, 2007)

Whilst Europeans and American liberals are convinced Obama will take a more multilateral and non-interventionist approach, the authors are not so sanguine: there is little difference between Republican neoconservatives and Democrat liberal hawks who will be influential in any Democrat administration.

On a promise? Obama glides on

US election blog - part four

As is usually the case, the final presidential debate was a competition to seem more ‘presidential’ than the other guy. In these terms, Obama won, confirming his frontrunner status, but rather undermining his claim to represent substantial change.