The Eagle's Shadow: Why America Fascinates And Infuriates The World [Hardcover]

Mark Hertsgaard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 23, 2002

What America looks like to the rest of the world

Americans rarely used to think about the outside world. As the mightiest nation in history, the United States could do as it pleased. Now Americans have learned the hard way that what outsiders think matters. When terror struck last September 11, author Mark Hertsgaard was completing a trip around the world, gathering perceptions about America from people in fifteen countries. Whether sophisticated business leaders, starry-eyed teenagers, or Islamic fundamentalists, his subjects felt both admiring and uneasy about the United States, enchanted yet bewildered, appalled yet envious.

This complex catalogue of impressions--good, bad, but never indifferent--is the departure point for a short, pointed essay in the tradition of Common Sense and The Fate of the Earth. How can the world's most open society be so proud of its founding ideals yet so inconsistent in applying them? So loved for its pop culture but so resented for its high-handedness? Exploring such paradoxes, Hertsgaard exposes uplifting and uncomfortable truths that force natives and outsiders alike to see America with fresh eyes.

"Like it or not, America is the future," a European tells Hertsgaard. In a world growing more American by the day, The Eagle's Shadow is a major statement about and to the place everyone discusses but few understand.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In May 2001, Hertsgaard (Earth Odyssey: Around the World in Search of Our Environmental Future) began a six-month journey through 15 countries to interview people of all sorts, from bus drivers to former parliamentarians, about one thing: the United States. Each chapter of his book opens with an anecdote illustrating a perception he found to be widespread: the United States is a land of vast wealth but also gross self-indulgence; American leaders are influential but arrogant and na‹ve; and American citizens have immense freedom but are nonetheless insulated and ignorant. The impressions Hertsgaard gathers, however, serve primarily as springboards from which he plunges into his own blunt, sometimes dour analysis of American attitudes, practices and institutions. Hertsgaard at one point tells of a Cuban boy he met after America's presidential elections. "It sounds like you are having trouble with your democracy in the United States," the boy teases. "Perhaps Cuba should send you election observers next time." The wisecrack is an apt introduction to Hertsgaard's interpretation of the Florida ballot impasse, which he thinks exemplifies the faults of America's democratic process. If Hertsgaard's strength lies in elaborating upon foreigners' perceptions, however, his weakness lies in the way he addresses his readers. "I know that parts of this book will be difficult for some Americans to hear," he writes, in a tone a bit too superior
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Hertsgaard was already circling the globe investigating other nations' perceptions of America when last September's terrorist attacks lent an unanticipated urgency to his findings. Few of those he interviewed in the 15 countries he visited express anything like the deep hatred of the U.S. that motivated the terrorists. Many voice warm admiration for America's dynamic economy, vibrant culture, and open political system. However, these same people also complain bitterly about how Americans dominate a world we poorly understand, sanctimoniously boast of democratic virtues while ignoring our complicity in the crimes of authoritarian regimes, and destroy other countries' deep-rooted cultural traditions by exporting our crass culture of self-indulgence and haste. Readers troubled by these criticisms may discount some of them as a reflection of the author's avowedly left-wing perspective. But much more than authorial tendentiousness lies behind the widespread and intense distrust of America that confronts us in these pages. And as difficult as sober self-criticism may be amidst the flag-waving that now defines the national mood, Hertsgaard summons us to that task. Bryce Christensen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st edition (October 23, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374103836
• ISBN-13: 978-0374103835
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,779,617 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required Reading!, September 10, 2003

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Eagle's Shadow: Why America Fascinates and Infuriates the World (Paperback)

Mark Hertsgaard is a journalist, an astute observor and communicator, and a very fine writer. Hertsgaard is also an American and his driver for gathering the information for this book appears to be a need to produce a 'wakeup call' for Americans. Well documented with conversations with people around the world, this book sets out to show how the people in the countries of the world relate to (and even mimic) Americans as people while finding our government, our consumerism, and our foreign policy (read empiricism) distasteful. Rather than driving this idea to a dulling end, Herstgaard manages to show how Americans can learn from the perceptions of people outside the USA, can examine the flaws present in abundance in our governmental control of the media, our "dumbing down" of our information about the rest of the world condition (social and environmental) by the corporate emesis of rampant consumerism and "fluff news" that flood not only our films but also our television, magazines and, sadly, our newspapers. He submits strong warnings of the sequelae of ignoring fundamental issues of human rights in our allowing the corporate homogenation of the world, depriving the growing lower class of jobs and much needed medical and monetary support. He writes about the embarassment of the 2000 presidential elections, the rush to war post 911, the frighteningly quick passage of the Patriot Act which dangerously impinges on human rights, and the growing negligence of the Global Warming Effect and other issues of Environmental significance.

But while Hertsgaard is complete in his serious warnings about the current state of the American Mind, he does not look at the future with a hopeless eye. "The first challege for Americans is to do a better job of informing ourselves about what is going on around the world and our nation's role in it. This won't be easy, because the most readily available information comes from the media......If we are passive in the face of America's official actions overseas, we in effect endorse them." He concludes his excellent book with a question: "Why can't America be wise as well as powerful, generous as well as rich, magnanimous as well as great? For all its flaws, this country remains a place where amazing things can happen."

This book comes at a critical time for the United States. Yes, Hertsgaard has a soapbox presentation, but reading a man's commitment to the betterment of America should be required reading for our populace who would rather sit numbly in front of mindless TV 'reality' and game shows than carefully observe what is happening in the global situation. Americans are not presented as Bad Guys, just uninformed lazy minds who need to change priorities before it is too late.

39 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally,An HONEST Post 9/11 Look At America By An American, February 5, 2003

By 

Cosmic Girl (Darlington, SC, United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Eagle's Shadow: Why America Fascinates And Infuriates The World (Hardcover)

The Eagle's Shadow is a book that I would recommend to everyone no matter where they live on the planet. It is a well written look at the way we Americans are perceived by people who live outside the US.

The book is very informative about how much American culture and policies affect everyone in the world. Hertsgaard has encountered people in very remote areas of the world who are quite knowledgable about American culture. American products reach every corner of the earth, thus, they affect everyone on earth. The book also explains how our policies on the environment, economics, and foreign affairs affect people throughout the world. As globalization becomes more and more prevalant, books like this one become more important in order for us to understand our role and how we affect others in this new society. We must understand our actions so that we may anticipate and change how the rest of the world reacts to us.

Although it is clear from his writing that he is in support of the left wing, that does not mean this book is "left-wing propaganda." This book looks at the flaws of American foreign policies and our sometimes "cowboy mentality" when dealing with other countries and suggests some ways that we can change that and form better relationships with the rest of the world. However, it also looks at the wonderful freedoms, wealth, and potential that exists in America and how these can be gifts to the world if used responsibly.

I think some of the people who gave bad reviews may have missed the point of the way the book was written. The book was not supposed to be a bunch of interviews without any insight or reasoning to how these perceptions about the US formed. The author gave a few specific examples of ideas that many people in the world share regardless of their geographic location. The majority of the book was about the source of these views, both good and bad. Hertsgaard takes his interviews and applies the history and the current events that shape the ideas that are expressed by the people he spoke with.

Also, I think the bad reviews illustrate the author's views that Americans are largely ignorant of things that happen outside of this country, and the policies that our goverment and corporations impliment both at home and abroad. It is very hard for someone to hear that they are ignorant in any way. This does not mean Americans are ignorant. It just means we tend to be ignorant about certain things. As illustrated in the book, this is not entirely our fault. Our media gives us a very one-sided view of the world and how it works. The vast majority of mainstream media is owned by a handful of corporations who are naturally going to give us news that benefits their profit margins and image. This is not some conspiracy idea or anything like that. For the past few years, I have almost exclusively watched BBC and ITN news (on PBS). The amount of unbiased information that I received from these sources far exceeds that of network news and even CNN. Two months ago, I got digital cable and EuroNews was one of the new channels I watch (it is like a European version of CNN). Although I do not know how it ranks with other news sources in Europe, I do know that it is the BEST television news source in the US right now. I hear ideas and events that are going on all over the world (and here in the US) that are either not mentioned or glossed over in American television news. I apologize for this rant, but I think it illustrates that we are not as knowledgable about history and current events as we should be. This has to change if we are going to enter the new globalized society that is forming right now. If not, we will be left behind.

After the 9/11 tragety, the majority of Americans felt that they had to agree with everything our government was doing. Anyone who disagreed was considered anti-American. While support to our leaders and society was needed and important, it was also important to voice honest ideas and opinions. When I think of America the first thing that comes to my mind is that I have freedoms that others don't have. The first of these is the freedom of speech. So, when people disagreed with Bush and the policies that the government wanted to implement, THEY were being the real patriots and were the most pro-American. To paraphrase Hertsgaard stated in his book, we cannot substitute a feeling of security for our rights.

30 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Holding up the mirror, November 24, 2002

By 

"jwc54" (Lambertville, New Jersey United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Eagle's Shadow: Why America Fascinates And Infuriates The World (Hardcover)

While this book could further explore viewpoints of citizens around the world, it does have a powerful and rarely heard message. We Americans really do not perceive the way the rest of the world thinks about us, or even care to consider why they do. Mr Hartsgaard exposes some of the reasons for this pervasive lack of perception. We are spoon fed what the corporate media wants us to hear, and we accept it as the gospel. To question offical policy one is now considered unpatriotic. In the guise of security and patriotism our civil liberties are now being eroded, our environment degraded, and our corporate leaders enriched. It takes courage to go against the current, but some of us want to know what is really going on, even if the answer is not flattering. As the author points out, our country was built on the premise of free speech and expression. A true patriot is someone who cares for our land and is willing to face up to the reality of our position in the world, and the direction we need to move to make it a better place for all. Mark Hertsgaard has held up a mirror for us to look into, but undoubtedly many will not like what they see.