Anti-Americanism

by Jean-François Revel

Book Overview

Revel probes the origins of the notion that America is the source of all evil: imperialistic, greedy, ruthlessly competitive--a hyperpower whose riches are acquired at the expense of the Third World.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1893554856
• ISBN13: 9781893554856
• Release Date: November 2003
• Publisher: Encounter Books
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.2" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Revel reveals the roots of European angst against the US

In a most insightful book, Revel not only debunks excessive Anti-Americanism, he lays bare the reasons why it is embraced so willingly in Europe (specifically France) and around the world. What better way to hide your shortcomings and inadequacies than to highlight the "evil" of a giant that threatens the world at large with "faulty" judgement and is "excessively attached" to agressive means to solve international problems?Revel usues biting commentary, witty sarcasm, and precise logic to deconstruct and lay bare many popular uses of [tricky] Anti-Americanism. I find this book so well written, and the arguments so well made, that I am going to buy many of the author's other books and read them as well just to examine and learn his critical style. Many investigative journalists and aspiring policy analysts could learn from this man's example.In summation, the information and examples are priceless, the logic faultless, and the presentation made my emotions rangefrom breathless with disbelief to incredulous with laughter. A highly recommended book for those seeking some answers to the constant refrains of "America is at fault!".

Exposing a mental disease with French flair!

One of the most naïve delusions held by the American Left is that the current administration's foreign policy has made the USA an object of hatred. As a South African, I have news for them: The hatred directed against your president now is really hatred of your country. I first became aware of this loathing of America amongst Marxists and Fascists in the 1980s. By the nineties it had spread into the mainstream media and was much in evidence at the time of Clinton's intervention in Yugoslavia at the end of that decade. Yet these hysterical critics could provide no alternative way to stop Milosevich's ethnic cleansing. They have always hated America for what it is, rather than for what it does. In the chapter Contradictions Revel examines the inherently contradictory character of the diatribes against America, pointing out how European elites that criticise the USA conveniently forget that their own continent made the 20th century the most murderous in history with their two world wars, their criminal ideologies like communism and nazism and their colonialism. He also discusses the enviro-leftist hypocrisy about global warming and the Kyoto protocol. In this regard, please read Bjorn Lomborg's book The Skeptical Environmentalist. Revel then turns his attention to Antiglobalism and Anti-Americanism, proving that it really is a struggle against liberalism, of which the USA is a shining example. It is not that the left has anything against globalism, they just don't like the fact that people worldwide will be able freely trade with one another without government interference. These mostly young antiglobalists are blind ideologues, remnants from a past of cruelty and bloodshed. Poor Third World countries want more international trade because that is the only way they'll escape from poverty, in the same way Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea and others have done, and India is now doing. Only economic growth lifts poverty, as Johan Norberg demonstrates so well in his book In Defense Of Global Capitalism. Revel discusses Régis Benichi's three waves of globalization: the first started during the 16th and 17th centuries, the second that lasted from 1840 to 1914, and the third which has continued since the end of the second world war and has improved the lives of third world people in direct proportion to the individual countries' adherence to the rule of law and to the level of economic freedom. He explores America's relations with the world in the chapter Hatreds And Fallacies, detailing the distortions from the left following 9/11 and the liberation of Afghanistan. The phobias and fallacies of old-style anti-Americanism and of Neo-totalitarianism greatly intensified at this time. Revel also looks at the strange alliance between the Leftists and the Islamofascists, a marriage of convenience based on hatred. In the next chapter The Worst Society That Ever Was, Revel tackles the crude lies about American society invented by the French media. He points out

An excellent read

My perception of the US when I first moved here from Italy at the age of 23 to attend an American University was very much negatively biased by the daily media, where the US is portrayed as a country where people would be willing to sell their mothers for money, with very little morality, no regard for the poor, very racist and violent... Although I didn't quite believe all of it, it was very hard to escape the constant barrage of daily negative news about the US. Well, it turns out that this was mostly all wrong. I have been living in the US for about 10 years, most of which in NYC. I love this country and living in NYC. I found the American people a lot more civilized, open minded and compassionate than most Italians. Not to mention the dignity, patriotism and work ethic.This book should be a mandatory reading for every person in the world. If people would stop accusing the US and rather try to learn something from her, the world will be a far better place that it is today.And for any American who still believes in a socialist US, with the goverment in charge of solving all of your problems, read this book. If that didn't change your mind, then move to France or Italy for a couple of years... You will be running back in the US, thanking whatever higher power you believe in for the luck of being born here!!Happy reading!Stefano

Excellent and incisive

As a French person living in an Anglo country(Australia)I'm well used to hearing the kind of mindless nonsense that is spouted daily aboth against the US and against France. This book is a reminder that France also has a great many intelligent, incisive writers of great clarity and passion, who not only don't hate America but admire it without gushing. Let me tell you, folks, there's more than one French person who completely agrees with Revel's thesis, and the limpid elegance, combined with biting wit, with which he puts his case. Only thing I'd say as small critcism is that he fails to address the fact that the anti-US beast is simply the resurrected, mutated form of the anti-Anglo-Saxon beast, the auld enemy, as it were.

A Concise, Well-Written Thesis

Contrary to the psychological needs of some reviewers, Revel doesn't present a stridently pro-American polemic, a la Rupert Murdoch's Fox News. By linking the US to the liberal democratic tradition, he shows how this tradition is under fire from totalitarian mindsets on the Right and the Left. He provides numerous examples of oxymoronic "criticisms" (really just attacks) of America, all of which undermine the theoretical and intellectual qualifications of the political elites tossing them out. When listed side-by-side, the contradictory nature of these ongoing misstatements is shocking.At the end of the 20th century, America is the lone superpower in part because the rest of the world has avoided the self-criticism and self-examination that are desperately required of liberal democracies. America has been running the race while the rest of the world has meandered around the track. Anti-Americanism wastes resources that could actually be used to compete with America; furthermore, such reasoned competition could make the world a better place. Revel laments Europe's unwillingness to take political risks, and rely instead on the very safe, very proven method of attacking the Americans. The results are very harmful indeed.Finally, Revel concludes that the end is not in sight. Whereas polls indicate that the average European citizen (an ironical term, as he points out) is just not that obsessed with bashing the US, political elites on the Right and Left ARE obsessed and will stay that way. Look for the 21st century to be another American one.This book is well-written and foot-noted and clocks in at 176 pages. Very useful.