Customer Reviews

Anti Americanism

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

~American readers may be surprised to discover that this putatively pro-American book reached the best-seller list in France. It is written by a French intellectual and journalist who, at nearly eighty years of age, knows the United States well (having written on the same subject nearly three decades ago in a book called Ni Jesus Ni Marx or, in English, Without Jesus or Marx ). The global position of the United States having evolved considerably since his previous book, Revel takes a fresh look~~ at this question in a larger context of debates worldwide on globalization, and not just U.S. society and foreign policy.

Published about a year after the events of September 11, 2001, the book takes a fresh look at the root causes of anti-Americanism, particularly in France, but also, to some extent, in Europe and the rest of the world, although some critics in France argue that he uses the book to pursue his own hidden political bias against certain French elites and domestic policies.

~Revel examines the mixed and often contradictory dual sense of envy and contempt that the United States inspires abroad, seeking to identify which of these attitudes are objectively based. He generally contends that it was this long-established ambivalent set of feelings outside the Untied States, and not the aftermath of 9/11, which underlies the resurgence of negative attitudes to the United States.

Revel's style is full of irony and paradox as he takes on subjects as diverse as attitudes~~~ on globalization, foreign fears of cultural extinction from Americanisms, and foreign policy. He sees in the anti-globalization debate a deeper resentment of American ideals of economic free-market liberalism. He challenges the demonstrators at the Seattle WTO meeting or at other anti-globalziaiton rallies which periodically sprout up, to look at the contradiction between their assault on so-called unbridled market ideology of free trade and the real attempts of the WTO to create rules of trade~~ which most developing countries are seeking to join. In an interesting final chapter, Revel blames the anti-americanism of foreign governments as actually bolstering the American superpower status which they revile.

To characterize this book as pro-American simply beause it challenges a wide range of attitudes that have broadly come to be seen as anti-American is to misunderstand some of the arguments Revel makes. There is some interesting historical and sociological analysis which makes~~ reading this book a few times worthwhile if you wish to decode contemporary attitudes to the United States in a much deeper and, ultimately, more illuminating historical framework of understanding.~

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.

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

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 range

from 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!".

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 the deliberate distortions and the contradictions, observing that such mendacity can only emanate from sick minds. He compares health care in the USA and Europe, looks at literature, crime statistics, the American melting pot versus large non-integrated minorities in France. I really enjoyed his dissection of the French state-sponsored movie industry and his hilarious opinion of the film Amelie as compared to the films of for example Ken Loach.

In the chapter Cultural Extinction, Revel considers popular culture in more detail, proving that cross-fertilisation benefits everybody and that state protection of local culture leads to stagnation. Globalization enhances cultural diversity and is an engine of enrichment. He warns that anti-American phobias and antiglobalism might derail progress in Europe, referring to Guy Sorman's book Progress And Its Enemies. This is neither a right-wing nor left-wing idea, but a rational argument also defended by the socialist Claude Allegré.

In chapter 6: Being Simplistic, Revel demolishes the argument that poverty is the root cause of terrorism, quoting Francis Fukuyama that the secular character of the Western concept of human rights at the heart of the liberal theory is the real enemy for the Jihadists. The Al-Qa'ida terrorists don't even mention economic inequalities, but reproach the West for contravening the teachings (or fundamentalist interpretations) of their religion's scripture.

In the last chapter: Scapegoating, Revel distinguishes between rational criticism of the USA that is based on facts, and the mental/spiritual disease that is Anti-Americanism. The second is a fanatical mindset that is also obviously idiotic in that it condemns America for a certain behaviour (intervention in Kosovo) while simultaneously condemning it for the opposite (lack of intervention in Rwanda). Where was France anyway, in the case of Rwanda, since it has always interfered in Francophone Africa when it suits French interests. He cites numerous instances where the French elite demonises America while much worse was happening in France, like the fact that the extreme rightist Le Pen came second in the first round of the French presidential election of 2000.

Revel concludes that the lunatic ravings of hatred for America and the opinionated ill will in much of the European media will only lead to Americans rejecting the idea of consultation. He believes that the USA's mistakes should always be subject to vigilant criticism but that the gross bias currently reigning will only weaken its exponents and encourage American unilateralism.

The most important lesson from this book is that anti-Americanism is a disease, not a position. The prognosis is not good - Revel believes that countering this attitude with facts and reason will not work: " ... the disinformation in question is not the result of pardonable, correctable mistakes, but rather of profound psychological need."

For more information on the mental disease of the hard left, (specifically in America), please read The Death of Right and Wrong by Tammy Bruce, The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation As a Basis for Social Policy by Thomas Sowell and Left Illusions: An Intellectual Odyssey by David Horowitz. For a clear picture of how globalization is improving the lives of everybody on the planet, read Johan Norberg's masterpiece, In Defence of Global Capitalism.

Uncouth Nation: Why Europe Dislikes America (The Public Square)

The Resurgence of Anti-Semitism: Jews, Israel, and Liberal Opinion (Philosophy and the Global Context)

Sinisterism: Secular Religion of the Lie (Revised and Updated Edition)

Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning

At last, In France, a voice raises against the stream of the " well-thinking " anti-americanism. Many people in France believe their country has invented the Human Rights but, despite Voltaire, Montesquieu, Tocqueville, Bastiat, and many others, they ignored the essence of the liberalism. From communists to nationalists, including socialists and gaullists, they definitely misunderstand the spirit of America.
This book, with a gentle sense of humour, and many opportune references, is a kind of relief for some french guys like me, who have a "love affair" with America. One by one, all the bloody stupidities and insanities accumulated since so many years, fall in dust. And little by little, JF Revel shapes a righter image of this great nation to which we so much owe. A true event in the briny marsh of the generally accepted ideas !
It should be hoped that this comforting speech will contribute to let american people know that some french hold them in great esteem, and cherish with them, Democracy and Freedom !

In this fascinating book, French author and Journalist Jean-Francois Revel looks at worldwide anti-Americanism in general, and French anti-Americanism in particular. As has been mentioned repeatedly, immediately after the 911 attack on the United States, people around the world expressed their sympathy for, and solidarity with the United States. However, in short order, the sympathy vanished and the solidarity melted away.

In this book, Monsieur Revel explains that anti-Americanism is based on an anti-rationalist, anti-capitalist obsession that is not entirely rational and cannot be overcome by American actions of any sort. This is not to say that the author sees America as a paragon of virtue, quite the contrary. But, what the author does do is look at the reality of America's actions throughout the world as opposed to the perceptions of its actions, particularly as presented by the world press.

Overall, I found this to be a fascinating and eye-opening book. If you are interested in a penetrating and insightful look at the basis of anti-American thought, particularly in France, as seen by an actual Parisian, then you must get this book. I recommend this book most highly. In fact, if you only read one book this year, I hope that it will be this book!

Revel has written a fairly tight treatise on the phenomenon of anti-Americanism in Europe generally and in France specifically. I have long noticed the European tendency to take any fact pattern involving the U.S., even those diametrically opposed, and reach the pre-ordained conclusion that it is America's fault. (This pattern is also seen in American Leftists who consistently point to Europe as blazing the path for America to follow and who often feel no need to justify such a position - the fact that Europeans take a certain position different from Americans is, in and of itself, sufficient in their minds to follow Europe's more "sophisticated" lead.)

Revel provides enough examples of such European flip-flopping regarding its stance towards U.S. policy that one must reasonably conclude that they are not merely isolated incidents, but manifestations of larger problems within European governments that are being sidestepped with critiques of America. Revel does indeed make such a position explicit and usefully explains and analyzes how anti-Americanism is often used as a way for Europeans to avoid taking a hard look at themselves. As Revel himself acknowledges, it is in Europe, not America, that totalitarian ideologies arise and often take hold.

The book is not without imperfections. The author's style is often just a touch hard to follow, which may be due to the book being a translation. Further, more attention might have been paid to the actual consequences of consistently taking an anti-American stance. Revel does recognize that Americans may simply ignore Europeans after being bombarded with anti-Americanism and that this may deprive Europeans the opportunity to make legitimate points. However, he might also have included the personal antipathy that many Americans are already feeling towards Europeans and provided concrete examples of how this might affect policy, especially that which relates directly to Europe. Overall however, a good book that is worth reading.

Call Mr. Revel, the venerable and prolific French social critic, a cliche-slicer. As much a critique of France as it is a defense of America, "Anti-Americanism" takes apart the most common accusations of the left against America--without lapsing into sychophantic rave about the world's only superpower. Revel has a strong historical memory and an absolute intollerance for cant and hypocrisy of any kind. He is often witty and sardonic--an appropiate touch then addressing some of the ridiculous anti-American chargs.

He reminds us that in the Twentieth Century, America saved Europe--and the planet--from two brutal dictatorships, both of which were generated in Europe: Nazism and Communionism. He also defends the broad outlines of the present "war on terror," and speaks the truth about the Islamic threat to democracy in America, Europe, and worldwide.

Revel did not completely convince me of the goodness of globalization, but, nevertheless, he refutes extemist and uninformed criticisms of it by pointing out some of its salutary effects for third world countries (not just America).

If you are tired of "the world according to the New York Times," then read and savor this book. Apparently, not all French people are unhinged when it comes to geopolitical matters. (And how can we really hate the country that both gave us Blaise Pascal and savors and supports jazz as it does?)

Douglas Groothuis

"Anti-Americanism" by Jean-Francois Revel is the most important book of 2003. (It was originally published in France in 2000; this translation was released in the US in 2003 with added information.) Revel exposes the willful disregard for the truth found in European governments (especially France) and the tendency to criticize America first at every opportunity for every reason imaginable, even when the criticisms are, in fact mutually exclusive. The book is illustrated with numerous examples, and is impeccably documented (mostly from French publications). My only wish is that it had an index, although footnotes are abundant with source information.

Throughout the book Revel makes it quite clear that when America does something wrong it should be criticized: he never flinches from doing so when he believes it is inappropriate; for (just one) example, he believes the death penalty is wrong, and criticizes the US for having it. Fair enough, the man is entitled to his opinion. The point that he goes on to make is that it is the American use of the death penalty that gets cries of derision from Europe and human rights groups, while countries that have wholesale executions, such as China, North Korea, Iran, and Saddam's Iraq get nary a second glance from the Europeans. That is a perhaps minor point in the great scope of world events (though not to the people involved), but there are many more vivid and complex examples of Anti-American bias discussed that are too long to go into here. The point to be made is this: read the book with an open mind and you will gain a new perspective on European governments and elites, as well as the infiltration of socialism and Marxism into all facets of the European left (and academia and the media virtually universally.)

Criticism of this book in these reviews is fairly predictable: people who actually read the book generally give Revel his deserved high marks for analysis and accuracy, and the overwhelming majority of one star reviews are one liners with no insight or critique, rather just an obvious liberal political ax to grind. One reviewer, though, piqued my interest; when he called Revel a "French Uncle Tom" and a "bought-off Frog": I wondered where he got his information and exactly who bought Revel off and for what purpose. He certainly would have sold more books in France, his chief market, if he had been hostile to the US (read the book again). This reviewer also makes a statement about the "fortunate Halliburton stockholders" rebuilding Iraq. I am not so sure how 'fortunate' Halliburton stockholders are inasmuch as the company lost $928 million last year and the stock under performed the S&P 500 last year by a substantial margin (although analysts now believe it is poised for a comeback, in the interest of full disclosure.) My point is this: in direct contrast to this reviewer and other leftists of his ilk, Revel deals in actual historical facts, not in propaganda strewn diatribes full of jingoistic fervor with no actual basis in the real world. That is why this book is so valuable: it is a real, honest, refreshing look at the actual situation in Europe from a knowledgeable insider, not a vitriolic piece of mindless propaganda.

This should be the next book you read.