American influence on Europe works through economic production, not culture

Evidence

If the problem were to be posed in that way, the answer would be simple: no, it does not exist, and indeed all that they do in America is to remasticate the old European culture. The problem is rather this; whether America, through the implacable weight of its economic production (and therefore indirectly), will compel or is already compelling Europe to overturn its excessively antiquated economic and social basis. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1158

Categorization

• DEFINE: Shows Gramsci’s materialist scaf-folding: culture change in Europe is driven by America’s economic basis, not by its ideas or books.