# The Americans — Last and First Men character guide

> The Americans in Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Americans, Eminent Americans

**First appearance:** 0009-i-europe-and-america

## Snapshot

The early twentieth century's ascendant nation, whose cultural and material dominance sets the template for a planet eventually unified under one Americanized civilization.

## Who they are

In Stapledon's sweep, America is the power whose economic and cultural gravity pulls the scattered nations of the First Men toward a single world order. That unification is ambivalent: it brings peace and plenty, yet also a homogenized mass mind vulnerable to stagnation and collapse. The Americanized world becomes the launching pad for humanity's first great cycle of rise, fall, and reinvention.

## In the story

### [III: Europe After the Anglo-French War](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/last_and_first_men_se/chapters/iii-europe-after-the-anglo-french-war)

Mentioned as a rising economic power and a source of financial influence, but not a cultural leader in this context.

### [II: Europe's Downfall](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/last_and_first_men_se/chapters/ii-europe-s-downfall)

The aggressors whose fleet was destroyed, leading to their collective guilt and moral decline.

### [I: Europe and America](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/last_and_first_men_se/chapters/i-europe-and-america)

Depicted as a race of bright but arrested adolescents, whose global influence corrupts culture and leads to war.

### [III: Europe Murdered](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/last_and_first_men_se/chapters/iii-europe-murdered)

The victors who commit genocide against Europe and are subsequently plagued by collective guilt and paranoia.

### [America and China](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/last_and_first_men_se/chapters/iii-america-and-china)

The Americans are portrayed as restless, zealous, and driven by activity for its own sake, with a culture merging Behaviourism and Fundamentalism.

### [The Rivals](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/last_and_first_men_se/chapters/i-the-rivals)

The American spirit is described as restless, zealous, religious, and materialistic, with a faith in activity and wealth as divine.

### [The Conflict](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/last_and_first_men_se/chapters/ii-the-conflict)

The Americans, driven by economic interests and a sense of moral guardianship, initiate the conflict over Antarctic fuel and child labor in India, and later use biological weapons against China.

### [I: The Foundation of the First World State](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/last_and_first_men_se/chapters/i-the-foundation-of-the-first-world-state)

The Americans are central to the founding, with the American President leading the Financial Directorate and the public reacting to his scandal.

### [IV: The Culture of the First World State](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/last_and_first_men_se/chapters/iv-the-culture-of-the-first-world-state)

Their culture dominated the planet, and their historical guilt over slavery led to the sacred caste of Negroes.

### [V: Downfall](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/last_and_first_men_se/chapters/v-downfall)

The American government's use of microbes leads to the 'American Madness' plague, which devastates the continent and later spreads globally.

### [VII: The Rise of the Second Men](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/last_and_first_men_se/chapters/vii-the-rise-of-the-second-men)

Referenced as one of the ancient cultures whose errors the Second Men avoided in their industrial development.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/last_and_first_men_se/characters/the_americans
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/last_and_first_men_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/last_and_first_men_se/characters