Menace in Europe: Why the Continent's Crisis Is America's, Too [Paperback]

Claire Berlinski (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 23, 2007

Old Europe’s new crisis.


Europe, the charming continent of windmills and gondolas. But lately, Europe has become the continent of endless strikes and demonstrations, bombs on the trains and subways, radical Islamic cells in every city, and ghettos so hopeless and violent even the police won’t enter them. In Spain, a terrorist attack prompts instant capitulation to the terrorists’ demands. In France, the suburbs go up in flames every night. In Holland, politicians and artists are murdered for speaking frankly about Islamic immigration.

This isn’t the Europe we thought we knew. What’s going on over there?

Traveling overland from London to Istanbul, journalist Claire Berlinski shows why the Continent has lately appeared so bewildering—and often so thoroughly obnoxious—to Americans. Speaking to Muslim immigrants, German rock stars, French cops, and Italian women who have better things to do than have children, she finds that Europe is still, despite everything, in the grip of the same old ancient demons. Anyone who knows the history can sense it: There is something ugly—and familiar—in the air.

But something new is happening as well. Indeed, Europe now confronts—and seems unable to cope with—an entirely new set of troubles. Tracing the ancient conflicts and newly erupting crises, Menace in Europe reveals:

• Why Islamic radicalism and terrorist indoctrination flourish as Europe fails to assimilate millions of Muslim immigrants

• How plummeting birthrates hurtle Europe toward economic and cultural catastrophe

• Why hatred of America has become ubiquitous—on Europe’s streets, in its books, newspapers, and music, and at the highest levels of government

• How long-repressed destructive instincts are suddenly reemerging

• How the death of religious faith has created a hopeless, morally unmoored Europe that clings to anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism, and other dangerous ideologies

• Why the notion of a united Europe is a fantasy and what that means for the United States

In the end, these are not separate issues. Berlinski provocatively demonstrates that Europe’s political and cultural crisis mirrors its profound moral and spiritual crisis.

But this is not just Europe’s problem. Menace in Europe makes clear that the spiritual void at the heart of Europe is ultimately our problem too. And America will pay a terrible price if we continue to ignore it.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Chilling, persuasive, and urgent. Most Americans prefer to think of ‘The Old World’ as charming, quaint, and irrelevant, but Berlinski shows why all of us need to worry about the harrowing dangers facing European civilization.” —Michael Medved, nationally syndicated talk show host

“Original, fascinating, and important. With deep knowledge and fresh insight, Berlinski shows how some of the problems swirling in Europe (such as nihilism and neo-Nazism) echo patterns from the distant past, while others (welfarism, childlessness, and Islamism) are novel. She warns non-Europeans: the region that nearly devastated the world in the twentieth century threatens again to inflict grievous damage in the twenty-first.” —Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum

“One of the wisest and most compulsively readable public intellectuals writing today, Berlinski presents a work of Orwellian foresight and Churchillian conviction that will tear a welcome hole in our complacency and teach us to rethink our political future.” —Norah Vincent, former Los Angeles Times op-ed columnist

“Serious, well researched—and riveting. More than a piercing alarm over Muslim radicalism in Europe, this thoughtful book takes us on a tour of the continent’s spiritual crisis. Berlinski weaves sociological insight and helpful historical analysis into accounts of everything from the sexual underside of immigration to the dynamics of assassination to Europe’s cities without children to its self-extinguishing tolerance.” —Stanley Kurtz, contributing editor at National Review Online


From the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Claire Berlinski, born and raised in the United States, has lived and worked in Britain, France, Switzerland, Thailand, Laos, and Turkey as a journalist, academic, and consultant. She has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, National Review, the Weekly Standard, and Policy Review, among other publications. Berlinski holds a degree in modern history and a doctorate in international relations from Oxford University and has studied French literature at the Sorbonne. She now divides her time between Paris and Istanbul.


From the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press (January 23, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400097703
• ISBN-13: 978-1400097708
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 0.7 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (68 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #685,786 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Claire Berlinski is a freelance investigative journalist, travel writer, biographer, and novelist who lives in Istanbul. She is the author of Menace in Europe: Why the Continent's Crisis is America's, Too, and There is No Alternative: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters, which Newt Gingrich said "every American should read" and Theodore Darymple described as "about as powerful a defense of Thatcher's record as is likely ever to be written."

Her journalism has been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, First Post, theOxford International Review, The American, Asia Times, the Globe and Mail, the New York Sun, the Weekly Standard, National Review, Policy Review, Penthouse, Radio Free Europe, World Affairs Journal, Azure, Traveler's Tales, Travel & Leisure, and Arabies Trends. She is also the author of two spy novels and a frequent guest on local and international radio talk shows.

Since receiving a degree in Modern History and a doctorate in international relations from Oxford University, she has lived and worked in Britain, Thailand, Laos, France, and Turkey.

She devotes her spare time to rescuing stray animals, studying the martial arts, and sharing hand-to-hand combat tips on the Internet.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 78 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Will Europe Survive? January 24, 2007

By William Muehlenberg VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

These are not good days for Europe. It has lost its way and seems incapable of recognising the many dangers and threats it is facing. Many Europeans recognise that an ideological, spiritual and cultural malaise has swept over the continent, but they seem unable or unwilling to properly assess it, or to adequately deal with it.

Europe certainly has a major, gaping hole in its soul, with its outright repudiation of its Christian heritage. And into this void has rushed various challenges, such as militant Islam, resurgent nationalism (including a revived Third Reich), and rampant anti-Americanism.

Claire Berlinksi is an American academic and journalist who has lived and worked in Europe for many years, and she does not like what she is seeing there. She argues that Europe is in the midst of a major crisis, and it is a crisis that will impact America and the rest of the free world.

Europe's rejection of its Christian past is only one aspect of this crisis, but it is a significant part. Berlinksi is no religious extremist. She describes herself as a secular Jew. But she is well aware of the consequences of the secularisation of Europe.

Radical Islam's attempt to turn Europe into a Muslim stronghold is another major part of the crisis. Berlinski looks at a number of European nations in detail, including Germany, Italy, France, Holland, as well as Britain, and examines how they are coping with their unassimilated and resentful Muslim populations.

Consider the Netherlands for example. Berlinksi shows that just as the Dutch attempted to appease the Nazis sixty years ago, they are now capitulating to militant Islam.... Sure, the assassinations of two prominent Dutchmen has given them a reality check, but the Dutch tradition of tolerance is still working to undermine the nation.

When Bosnian Serbs swept into Srebrenica, pony-tailed Dutch forces didn't fire a shot: they simply stood by and allowed the massacre of 7,000 men and boys. Holland, like the rest of Europe, is "passive, paralysed, and fundamentally in disaccord with American idealism" says Berlinksi. While European diplomats bickered as Yugoslavia burned, it was the Americans who finally intervened.

Nation after nation in Europe has simply capitulated to hostile forces instead of standing up for what is of value. Within days of the 2004 Madrid terrorist train blasts, the newly-elected Spanish government pledged it would pull its troops out of Iraq, handing the al-Qaeda terrorists exactly what they wanted,. Neville Chamberlain-style appeasement is being replayed over and over again in Europe, with very few Europeans learning the lessons of history.

Demographic trends are also a major concern in Europe. If present trends continue, much of Europe will be losing population in the near future. And this is closely tied in with a disillusioned collective psyche. A nation or a continent that has no reason to exist, has no hope for the future, has no firm set of values to cling to, is not going to want to have children. Only people of hope, as well as people with a sense of the past, have children. Nihilistic, centreless Europeans have no hope, have no vision, and therefore, have no future.

Indeed, the only Western nation which is not suffering from population decline is the United States. Americans still have a sense of purpose and destiny, so they are still willing to have children. Europeans, by contrast, have been cast adrift, socially and spiritually, with no anchor and no rudder. Their childless nations offer brute testimony to this fact.

Each nation Berlinksi examines shows ominous signs of moral decay and political paralysis. Europeans have lost their way. They no longer have anything to believe in. Thus they no longer have anything to fight for, or to live for. "Without vision, a people perish," we are told in the book of Proverbs. That truth is being played out before our eyes in Europe. Thus Europe as we know it may not long survive.

For those who are alert and observant, this will come as no surprise. But too many people have been deaf and blind as to the looming fate of Europe. Will Europe arouse from it slumber, shake off its lethargy, and turn things around, or will it simply further decline into oblivion? Whether the warnings sounded in this book will be heeded, and heeded in time, remains to be seen. Read more ›

181 of 198 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Something old, something new, something evil ... March 5, 2006

By Pieter Uys HALL OF FAMETOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

This frequently witty but deadly serious account of Europe today is a type of travelogue in which the author writes from different countries, commenting upon the continental malaise from various perspectives. The compelling narrative blends personal experience and interviews with impressive historical knowledge, psychological insight and political analysis. She reports the opinions of a wide spectrum of individuals, both indigenous Europeans and Muslim immigrants, while interpreting the ominous signs visible everywhere.

With reference to the French philosopher Chantal Delsol, Berlinski explains the root of Europe's political and spiritual crisis as the collapse of faith that has led Post-Christian Europe into destructive nihilism. The delusions of postmodernism, relativism and multiculturalism are paving the continent's path towards collapse. The mindset expresses itself in the self-loathing of European elites, the strange passivity of the people and Europe's willingness to bargain with depravity which she calls a "self-extinguishing tolerance." I highly recommend Explaining Postmodernism by Stephen Hicks to understand the mental dynamic at work.

The high European suicide rate reflects its cultural, spiritual and ideological emptiness. Anti-Americanism, coupled with antisemitism & antimodernism, is just another pseudo-religious substitute serving as the glue holding the sorry mess together in the absence of anything meaningful.... She has noticed its messianic & orgiastic aspects, as did Christopher Hitchens and Julie Burchill. The idea of the European Union has undermined national identity but lacks emotional appeal and is thus no match for the expansionist force of Jihad that has led to riots, the Danish cartoon uproar and the murders of artists and politicians.

Berlinski reveals the hidden room in the house of Europe: Bleak lawless ghettos where decidedly non-Western practices like female circumcision are tolerated because of Multiculturalism; Radical preachers inciting their followers against the society that gave them refuge; Alienation amongst even 3d generation immigrants whose grandparents arrived in the 1950s; Violence and the murder of Theo van Gogh and Pim Fortuyn in Holland. This confirms the observations of Bruce Bawer in While Europe Slept.

In chapter three where Berlinski discusses the popular novel White Teeth by Zadie Smith, she remarks upon the petty, ignorant and uncritical anti-Americanism of people like Harold Pinter and Margaret Drabble. The projection of the rage and self-hatred of the elites on Israel and the United States will not solve the continent's problems.

An exception is the city of Marseille where she finds hope. The local approach directly contradicts the French ideal of republicanism but it works. Ethnicity and religion are recognized and community leaders hold regular meetings where they get to know & respect one another. The city has shown strong resistance to antisemitism and the vandalism rampant in the rest of France.

Her verdict on the Spanish election that followed the Madrid bombings confirms Chantal Delsol's diagnosis: for Europeans no cause is worth a fight. In Italy she thinks of Oriana Fallaci's The Rage and the Pride, expresses regret about the ugly housing projects & shopping malls of cement on the outskirts of the cities and reflects on a young woman's lack of interest in having a family. A fascinating fact emerges: the birthrate in the former Axis powers, including their ally Spain, is dropping faster than anywhere else. People who have lost a vision of eternity and immortality would of course avoid breeding.

She provides a side-splittingly funny analysis of the antiglobalist José Bové & his ideological predecessors, identifying him as a perennial European personality predisposed to vandalism & violence, amongst which earlier incarnations were Tanchelm of Antwerp, Joachim of Flora, Hans Böheim and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. They were all false messiahs whose millennial utopianism included the demonization of Jews. In this regard, I found William Nicholls's Christian Antisemitism of great value for understanding the bigger picture.

The chapter on the German band Rammstein is my favorite by far. She shows how their act is a particularly grotesque example of what Delsol terms "black market nationalism" - a result of the repression of profound instincts. This brilliant analysis, simultaneously hilarious and horrifying, encompasses translations of their lyrics, their use of Leni Riefenstahl footage in promotional clips, the imagery on their album covers, the videos of their songs Mein Teil & Links and the nature of their live performances.

Her account of the first interview with the band made me laugh: Her penetrating questions & their clumsy responses that reveal at best unclear thinking but more likely stupidity. Prototypically German, they have the bombast of Wagner and employ the now familiar eerie hypnotism of the German language, martial music, crass vulgarity & images of extreme violence in their shows.

There is also a follow-up interview. It becomes quite clear that the band's phony pacifism masks a resentment of American power. Gnawing guilt leads to peevish disgruntlement, she observes in describing the opinions of band members. Intelligent they are not and they've certainly not learnt from history. On one page she prints quotes and asks the reader to guess whether they are by Goebbels or Rammstein, proving that the only difference is that Goebbels was more articulate.

The Rammstein phenomenon shows up the farce of Europe - their music is emphatically German. It is also preoccupied with the smell of burning flesh, blood, fear, sadism, doomsday & destruction. The manner of their delivery in concert reveals much but they do not realize they are the living embodiment of the vocabulary, dramaturgy, occultism, ferocity & nihilism of the Third Reich. When confronted, they react with hurt surprise.

Christianity may be senescent in Europe - for now - but nationalism lives. Berlinski's brilliant read concludes with bibliographic notes and an index. Other informative books that deal with the crisis in Europe and the forces behind it include The Unlearned Lessons of the Twentieth Century by Chantal Delsol, Sinisterism by Bruce Walker, The Last Days of Europe by Walter Laqueur, The Dragons Of Expectation by Robert Conquest, Decline and Fall by Bruce Thornton and Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Read more ›

157 of 175 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Read this book March 15, 2006

By Geoff Puterbaugh

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I have only finished the first few chapters of this book, but those were enough to make me recommend this book without hesitation. Perhaps the most gloomy thought arising from the reading was: "Oh no, the Europeans are doing it again." And when I say "doing it again," I mean starting a World War. After all, ever since 9/11 we have known that the majority of the hijackers came from Saudi Arabia. A much more disturbing question is how many of them came via EUROPE. Muhammad Atta, the ringleader, for sure. In this century, more than 350,000 Americans have laid down their lives in EUROPE, trying to keep Europe alive and free. How then can it possibly be true that EUROPE is alive with anti-Americanism, and tolerating large communities of Islamic radicals who have sworn, over and over again, to destroy America?

I will single out two items which absolutely defy belief.

First, after the murder of Theo Van Gogh, someone painted a large mural in Holland proclaiming "Thou shalt not kill." A local Muslim, incredibly, objected to the mural on the grounds that it was "racist." Even more incredibly, the Dutch authorities capitulated to him and ordered the mural painted over. Even MORE incredibly, someone filming the destruction of the mural had his videotape confiscated and destroyed.

Are we in full surrender mode yet, or not??

Second: a top Dutch politician now spends every night in a high-security prison because his security guards cannot vouch for his safety otherwise! He is "allowed" weekly visits with his wife! On the other hand, a man who murdered a top Dutch politician was fined 34,000 Euros and will be out of prison within a few years -- he did not get life imprisonment!...

So Dutch politicians are forced to spend their lives in prison, while their murderers are fined and released!!

Are we in full surrender mode yet, or not?!

Buy this book and read it. Read more ›