Pan American Bazaar: Consumer culture and popular participation in U.S. power (1939-1942)

Abstract

This article examines the brief rise of popular Pan Americanism in the United States, paying particular attention to the consumer culture that the movement awoke there. It argues that Pan Americanism provided an opportunity for everyday Americans to imagine themselves participating in the construction of U.S. power, and, when contrasted with the rise of Nazi Germany, to exalt the Pan American model as an example of U.S. anti-imperialism and moral power. As the consumer culture surrounding Pan Americanism was a rather hermetic production, it did not provide space for criticism; however, its popularity did open the possibility for civil rights and political activists to use the Good Neighbor Policy and the public enthusiasm for anti-imperialist discourse as a moral platform to question U.S. discriminatory policies.