Visit the related post at The Open Window Exchange.

Nearly every year, I teach a month-long summer school course overseas. During May 2013, I taught a course called “The Global City” in London. One of the key ideas we introduce (using Dean McCannell’s stellar book, The Tourist) is that the tourism industry actively constructs a version of London for tourist consumption. Red telephone booths, charming historicism, proper fellows with umbrellas doffing their hats, Orwell, Churchill, Beckham. Nearly all tourists attempt to push past the layer of the obviously constructed to what they deem as “authentic.” Depending on who the tourist is, s/he may define “authentic” differently. The “truth” is that there are many Londons (not just the historic, natty, white one presented in the West End) and “authentic” is a social construction.

After my course, my wife and I took a vacation in Italy. In a brief essay on The Open Window Exchange, I reflect on some discoveries about the search for the authentic and American cultural imperialism during a visit to one of the most lavish McDonald’s in the world in Rome. The Open Window Exchange is a new venture by some recent Concordia grads and I hope all TSP readers will give it a chance.