The American Century: Varieties of Culture in Modern Times is a 1997 book by Norman F. Cantor with Mindy Cantor.

In this book Norman Cantor, who is best known for his treatment of medieval European history, traces 20th-Century Western intellectual thought, including art, literature, philosophy, psychology, criticism, and other intellectual disciplines. As the title implies, Cantor devotes the most space to describing the intellectual trends in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, but only to the degree that he believes the United States has dominated 20th-Century Western culture

Western culture

Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization or European civilization, refers to cultures of European origin and is used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific artifacts and...

. Cantor also describes the writings and accomplishments of intellectuals from other Western countries, particularly France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, and the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

.

The book is divided into several broad headings, including Modernism

Modernism

Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...

, Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...

, and Postmodernism

Postmodernism

Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...

. In chapters entitled "Marxism

Marxism

Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...

 and the Left" and "Traditions on the Right", Cantor describes, often critically, aspects of both left-wing and right-wing intellectual trends and institutions.

Mindy Cantor, an art historian, prepared the photo essays which provide a glimpse of representative styles of 20th-Century art and architecture.

The book is written in an informal style and Cantor offers his own idiosyncratic interpretation of major intellectual events of the 20th Century.