The 1976 International Conference, The United States in the World: 200 Years of American History—What Difference Has It Made?

□ More than three hundred scholars and experts from over forty countries gathered at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. during the last week in September to take part in an international conference called "The United States in the World." The conference was jointly sponsored by the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Studies Association and the Smithsonian Institution, and was funded in large part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The purpose of the conference was to explore the influence of American culture on the rest of the world. Much has been written on the influence of other countries on the development of the United States, but in the year of the Bicentennial it seemed worthwhile to ask: what difference has 200 years of American History made? Perhaps Bruno Zevi from Italy best summarized the theme of the conference, when beginning his paper on architecture he recalled that the Italian novelist, Mario Soldate, published an account of his two-year stay in America in 1935 which was entitled America Primo Amore. The book appeared in English in 1959 and it was called not America First Love , but When Hope Was Named America.