Americanization can be best described as

Americanization is a process of cultural assimilation referred to the influence that the culture of the United States of America exerts in other cultures of the world, which results in a process of substitution of the native culture for that of the United States. For many observers, Americanization, like any process of cultural assimilation, is a threat to cultural identity and rests on the basis of the process of globalization.

explanation: we can only guess at how our actions may be perceived in the future. doing something really big like killing lots of people, saving lots of people, affecting the lives of lots of people is a sure fire way of being remembered in historical records. we can also make a difference in the history records by being a small influence on something bigger, whether that is as a civil servant, scientist or artist.

of course you could argue that we all affect history just as tiny cogs in a   bigger machine.

if you mean how do people influence our opinions of things which have already happened, then simply by writing a book which looks at things form a different perspective and trying to convince people that this perspective is more accurate or truthful. people do it all the time i.e. richard the third was a terrible or was he? plenty would disagree, it's just that their views aren't the most widely known.n:

b, public works good luck