Global Village

A decade into the 21st century and the world is increasingly being recognized and branded as a “global village.” Questioning whether conventionality across America’s once diverse and sundry cities, and the globalization of American ideals, habits, and products throughout global society is favorable in today’s rapidly changing world, Virginia Postrel and Philippe Legrain present their arguments, respectively. In Virginia Postrel’s “In Praise of Chain Stores” she argues that even though American cities are becoming more and more identical, that there are immediate advantages to this current transformation. Philippe Legrain’s “Cultural Globalization is Not Americanization” questions the idea that America’s culture is having such a profound impact on the rest of the world that other countries are losing their own unique identities. Virginia Postrel’s “In Praise of Chain Stores” and Philippe Legrain’s “Cultural Globalization is Not Americanization” successfully defy generalities and assumptions of the effects of the American economic machine and the United States’ prominent social grasp on the world through their use of similar rhetorical appeals in support of their arguments.

In this paper, Postrel’s and Legrain’s challenges of orthodox views of American culture through their strong logical reasoning and impressive examples and supporting evidence will be thoroughly compared. First a detailed summary of each of the author’s work will be given so that the major points of both essays can be specified. Next a comprehensive point-by-point comparison of each article will be given on how both works challenge common beliefs, if they revise any stereotypes, and the rhetorical strengths and weaknesses presented by the authors.

“In Prais...

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...ness to the rhetoric of Postrel’s article.

Philippe Legrain also uses many Logos appeals to support his claim. He provides a plethora of citations, and second opinions to support his position on Americanization. Instead of ignoring the elements of the argument in contrast to his own, he shares every premise of what globalization and the spread of American culture may be. As a characteristic of Americanization Legrain explains that “Another American export is also conquering the globe: English…Language is often at the heart of a global culture” (Legrain 519). As for Ethos, Legrain’s authority on globalization is valid as he was once an advisor to the World Trade Organization and has written extensively on the subject. Legrain’s way of argumentation contrasts with Postrel’s and her Ethos deficiency, but the two articles do both have a privation of Pathos appeals.