Reconstructing America: The Symbol of America in Modern Thought [Hardcover]

Professor James W. Ceaser (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 25, 1997

With wit and passion, Ceaser traces the origins of the negative images of America, beginning with French scientists in the middle of the eighteenth century who viewed the country as a land of racial and physical degeneracy, and continuing with German thinkers from Hegel to Nietzsche, Spengler, and Heidegger, who viewed America as culturally inferior and a technological wasteland. Ceaser puts these critics of America in a dialogue with the country's defenders - among them Alexander Hamilton, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Leo Strauss. By revealing the sources of the hostility to America, Ceaser undermines the position of its present attackers. He contends that only if we reassert political science rather than cultural and literary criticism as the proper intellectual discipline for directing politics will we free the real America from the symbolic America and vindicate its name.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Ceaser (government and foreign affairs, Univ. of Virgina) distinguishes between the "metaphysical or symbolic" America (the notion of America as a materialistic, decadent country) and the "real" America (America as a preeminent bastion of freedom and opportunity). The negative concept, he argues, originated in Europe?primarily in Germany and France. To flesh out this idea, he traces the thought of pertinent Germans from Hegel to Heidegger ("with passages through Spengler and Junger") and the French from Buffon to Bandrillard ("with passages through Maistre and Kojeve"). An engagingly written excursion through American and European political and intellectual history. this book touches on an important issue in contemporary American society: not only how other countries see America but the negative attitudes prevalent among certain groups, including academics here at home. In view of the climate of opinion surrounding Waco and Oklahoma City, this book's positive appraisal, written in a style accessible to the lay reader, could be of interest to a wide readership.?Leon H. Brody, U.S. Office of Personnel Mgt. Lib., Washingon, D.C.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

... splendid.... [an] important book. -- The Wall Street Journal, Adam Wolfson

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (August 25, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300070535
• ISBN-13: 978-0300070538
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,754,782 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's about anti-americanism, December 16, 2001

By 

Nirolf "Nirolf" (Paris, France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reconstructing America: The Symbol of America in Modern Thought (Paperback)

This book is about the intellectual roots of anti-american sentiment. It traces anti-americanism back to 18th century France where Buffon, a famous biologist, developed a theory about the degeneracy of animals and plants in the New World. Although Franklin and Jefferson reacted against Buffon thesis it was to have a brilliant future. James W. Ceaser shows how it morphed through two centuries of intellectual aberrations from having racial, economic to philosophical foundations. Central in his essay are figures like Heidegger and Baudrillard.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reconstructing America, November 25, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Reconstructing America: The Symbol of America in Modern Thought (Paperback)

Ceaser eloquently captures the intellectual and political foundations of today's anti-america climate. Ceaser provides a clear, yet thorough genealogical analysis of this movement, and manages to spark occasional laughter while providing clever personal insight into the greatest intellectual debates of the 20th century, including the thought of Kojeve, Strauss, Heidegger, and Baudillard. This book has in it the spirit of Alan Bloom's "Closing of the American Mind," Roger Kimball's "Tenured Radicals," and Peter Lawler's "Postmodernism Rightly Understood."

2 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A lot of academic jargon, March 17, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Reconstructing America: The Symbol of America in Modern Thought (Hardcover)

This book is not really worth reading. It's loaded with academic jargon, and it skips around a lot. It starts off well, but overall, the book is boring and hard to follow.