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

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"Uncouth Nation" is an awesome book. It's the best analysis I've ever read about the phenomenon of European anti-Americanism. As a German, I know what I'm talking about.

Andrei S. Markovits, a Professor of Comparative Politics and German Studies at the University of Michigan, argues that Europeans hate America not for what it does but for what it is. He cites tons of examples to prove the case for his assumption. If it is about politics, economy, culture, or sports: America and the Americans are often seen as stupid, egoistic, shallow, synthetic, money-mad, rowdyish, and uncouth.

More and more Europeans are in fear of something like "Americanization" or "American conditions". For example, when Juergen Klinsmann was committed to coach the German soccer team, many commentators worried about his plans to exercise "American training methods". European anti-Americanism also appears as an antagonism sometimes: Many Europeans bitch about Hollywood movies although they love to watch them. Many people say they hate McDonalds although they love to eat burgers. America can't do it right: Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Markovits shows that anti-Americanism has only little to do with reality, with George W. Bush or the current politics of the U.S. administration. In fact, Anti-Americanism is a biased and stereotyped imagination of America. In this imagination, America is seen as origin of all evil things all over the world. It is equated with capitalism and globalization. But why has anti-Americanism become so successful today? In Europe, it helps to form a European identity. Many Europeans don't have any idea for what a unified Europe could stand for. They only know that it shouldn't be like America.

It's sad but true: Anti-Americanism has become a "lingua franca" in Europe today. Markovits' in-depth and well-written book is a must read for everyone who wants to understand that phenomenon.

This is a great book on an interesting, compelling and timely topic. And though the work is based on scholarship (with lots of footnotes, most of which are well worth reading, too), it is not at all written in that overly intellectual tone and heavy-handed style that scholars so often use. In other words: it's not work to read, it's a very enjoyable read.

Markovits highlights the historical background of Euro anti-Americanism, and explains how it has evolved into a universal feature of everyday discourse amongst all Europeans of all class backgrounds (not just, as in the past, elites). The presidency of George W. Bush provides some explanation for the more recent phenomena, but this goes well beyond and much deeper than Bush and is likely to remain long after he's gone.

The combination of "ill-will and ignorance" on the part of so many explains why (and how) Europeans can make the most outlandish statements and believe the most far-fetched conspriracy theories regarding Americans. (Now I understand why that pretty young blond woman I met on the train in Germany seemed so incredulous when I answered that I owned only one televison and no firearms!)

The author is clearly a man of the political Left, yet he deftly demonstrates how anti-Americanism has come to seriously distort intellectual debate among those who should know better (this could also be applied to the Left in the US, I think), while resentment, rejection and even hatred of the US is now key to the formation of a new "European Identity" (meaning identification with the EU, above and beyond individaul countries). The chapter on anti-semitism (anti-Americanism's "twin") is quite excellent, and likely the book's most controversial. Again, it is the political and cultural Left that comes off looking the worst (since we already expect such ignorance and hatred from the Right).

This is a definitive book on the subject that not only provides a useful explication, it also explains why it matters, why we should care. And because this really is a very important issue for both the present and future, I hope to soon see the author discussing this topic on all those news network talk shows.

I say: Check it out!

This book does not pretend to be a history but an argument into the nature of anti-Americanism. It is, if you like, a lengthy (and by and large convincing) Op-Ed. The basic argument is this: anti-Americanism (an emotion masquerading as analysis) is everywhere in the Europe of today. It "is unifying West Europeans more than any other political emotion--with the exception of a common hostility toward Israel. In today's West Europe these two closely related antipathies are now considered proper etiquette. They constitute common fare among West Europe's cultural and media elites, but also throughout society itself from London to Athens and from Stockholm to Rome." Furthermore, in today's Europe "by being anti-American, paradoxically, one adheres to a prejudice that ipso facto, seems to confer on its bearer a stamp not of intolerance but of legitimate resister and opponent against a truly powerful force in the world." Someone who is anti-American is (by definition) "good" and "European"; someone who is (conversely) American or pro-American is "bad", "non-European", and (increasingly although Markovits does not dwell on this racist phenomenon) "Asian".

The America depicted in European discourse does not, of course, have anything to do with the actual America. In European discourse, America "is regarded as "dangerous, commercial, nationalistic, undemocratic, antiwelfare, crude, religious, puritanical, vulgar" (and of course irresistibly attractive to Europeans who are its exact opposite). This is not a picture of nation-state that ever existed or exists; it is the picture of God and Satan (with Europeans as God and Americans as Satan). It should thus not surprise us that when bad things happen to Satan, Europeans can barely hide their glee. In October of 2001, Markovits relates that European intellectual began to tell their audience that "Americans were finally receiving a long overdue punishment for all their misdeeds in the past; that the whole thing was really no big deal because many more Americans lost their lives in traffic accidents; that the destruction of the Twin Towers benefited New York aesthetically; that the Israeli Mossad was behind all this; that the entire event had been staged by the American government" and on and on. Much of this hateful discourse is with us still.

And Markovits points out that this antipathy is not returned by Americans. Quite the contrary. Not only do we want closer ties with Europe (Europeans want to sever theirs with us) but (as Markovits points out) it is quite simply impossible to imagine that, had the Groupe Islamique Armee succeeded in crashing Air France Airbus into the Eiffel Tower on December 24, 1994 the American discourse about Europe in general and France in particular would have been filled with anything but solidarity.

Where Markovits and I part company is in his seeing anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism as twin brothers. I think there is, indeed, a relation between the two "isms" but I don't think that America is the "new Jew" in Europe. I agree with him that "clusters of assumptions embedded in our languages and cultures pre-select how we think about the world." And it is here (in my opinion) that there is the connection between anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism. Europeans have, after all, had two thousand years of conditioning in which to think and speak of a people (the Jews) as omni-present, all-powerful, all-evil, and yet completely seductive to the (innocent and good) Europeans. This is the stuff of classic anti-Semitism--the kind that became (by and large) illegitimate after the Holocaust. But the cultural tropes do not go away simply because you see what a way of thinking has wrought; language especially does not change overnight. And so Europeans (in my opinion) needed a new bogeyman on whom to vent their spleen. And who better than Mr. Big--the all-powerful United States; the only country left standing as it were post 1945? That, I think is the connection, between the two hatreds but it is not a connection Markovits explores--probably because he does not agree with me.

Markovits concludes by pointing out that anti-Americanism is today the only thing unifying all the EU member states and, indeed, the only thing unifying the peoples within those nation states. There is thus every incentive for European leaders to fan the flames of anti-Americanism. Anti-Americanism allows European leaders to keep their jobs and to try to create a "European" identity that (without the Other of America) quite simply does not exist.

If Markovits is right, this virulent anti-Americanism will be with us for many years to come.

With Uncouth Nation: Why Europe Dislikes America Andrei Markovits, one of the world's most influential political scientists and one of the leading analysts of European politics and transatlantic relations, has produced a major work on the resurging problem of anti-Americanism in Europe. Looking behind the narrowly circumscribed realm of politics, Markovits explores the politics of culture and the culture of politics in which anti-Americanism originated and finds expression. Markovits explores the historical routes, changing functions, and seesaws of anti-Americanism in European history, and the ambivalences in Europe's relationship with the New World. But he primarily addresses current public discourses and presumably "non-political" social and cultural debates since 9/11, incorporating a sophisticated analysis of both media and public opinion data. He thereby provides a differentiated account of distinct left-wing, right-wing and cultural anti-Americanisms and their varying origins. However, he also points out that anti-Americanism, that is the blurred, stereotypical and prejudicial perception of the American nation and its citizens as such, independent from their actual behavior, may well be on the verge of becoming Europe's "lingua franca", turning cultural reservation against "Europe's antonymous Other" into a political tool. As Markovits hypothesizes: Equipped with a mass base "anti-Americanism could, for the first time in its long European history, become a powerful force well beyond those ambivalences, antipathies, and resentments that have continuously shaped the intellectual life of Europe since July 5, 1776." (p.221) At least among significant parts of the elites, the sense of difference is more and more replaced by disdain.

Markovits skillfully demonstrates that anti-American misperceptions and hostilities of the "chattering classes" have become increasingly popular, showing that there's clearly more going on, and at stake, than just temporary or specific political opposition to President Bush and his "war against terrorism", or policies in the Middle East. He provides plenty of data, discourse material, and case studies from across Europe (though focusing especially on Great Britain, France and Germany) that indicate a hazardous shift from ambivalence to increasing hostility towards America in the most diverse cultural manifestations - and with political implications. Today, maybe more than ever, cultural anti-Americanism may be utilized in order to serve identity-generating functions for European integration, while simultaneously it is a very convenient - and increasingly often used - instrument to split off and essentialize the perceived negative aspects of post-industrial modernization and globalization, simply by portraying (and personifying) them as intrusive "Americanization". In European discourses, the fear of "Americanization" is explicitly mobilized when there's talk about the commercialization of sports culture, the transformation of higher education, the deregulation of labor regulations, or the hybrid multi-culturalization of society, let alone power in international relations.

Part of what makes Markovits' study so fascinating is his look at broader, non-political discourses. The conceptual distinctions between criticism of American government policies and prejudice against America as such are plausible. In case of the latter, Markovits observes, America is condemned no matter what it does or doesn't. To be sure, Markovits leaves no doubt that he himself doesn't agree with much of the Bush administration's policies, and he never loses sight of Europe's democratic achievements on the road to European integration. His critical and illuminating analysis is ultimately driven by the commitment to point out dangers and challenge a misguiding path that may be a useful currency for the time being but if followed, in the end, may take Europe nowhere good. Be that as it may: This authoritative work on the subject will surely stir public debate and influence future analysis of European-American relations, and of the many public (mis-)perceptions involved, for years to come.

The book excels on two levels: it is academically sound - and politically a provocation. Andrei Markovits challenges all the politicians and diplomats, political sicentists and journalists who insist that there is still much of a common ground between the US and Europe. Based on an avalanche of empirical evidence, Markovits proves that Anti-Americanism has become the European "lingua franca" - left and right, upper and lower classes united in an aggressive prejudice directed against the United States. Markovits' approach is especially convincing as he is neither a "neo-con" nor defending Bush's Iraq- and other policies. On the contrary, he is an American liberal who has not been overpowered by the traditional Europhilia so many liberal Americans cherish.

In a certain way, the US has become the defining other for Europe: Europe insists to be what America is not. Any kind of negative stereotyping - completely unacceptable when directed against other nations - has become accepted by the European mainstream as long as it is directed against America. Markovits' book makes "the West" look like a naive construction: There is not much left that links the two sides of the Atlantic. Markovits' book could and should make Eruopeans rethink their simplistic negative cliché when it comes to America.

Anton Pelinka, Central European University, Budapest

A reviewer here--"what'sanelitist"--has COMPLETELY missed the point of this thoroughly researched, cogently argued, and illuminating book. In fact, I doubt "what'sanelitist" actually read Uncouth Nation because the book is exactly the OPPOSITE of what he/she claims (and rants angrily about).

Uncouth Nation is undoubtedly un-elitist. Markovits shows us that anti-Americanism runs deep (deeper than hating on Bush & co.) in the halls of academia and the editorial pages of European newspapers. The second part of his argument is that the majority of Europeans, i.e. those outside "polite society," are not card-carrying anti-Americanists. Millions of young people and Eastern Europeans, among others, admire and consume music, sports, and pop culture from the United States. In other words, anti-Americanism is a phenomenon that characterizes some sectors of European society. Markovits tells us exactly who and where its proponents are and unearths the historical roots of this ideology.

Contrary to what "what'sanelitist" writes, this book is not about the United States, its citizens, or its culture. Uncouth Nation is a book about Europe. Anyone who reads this book as an endorsement of all things American is totally missing the point. As Markovits shows, it does not matter what the United States is or isn't (or what its authors do or do not write). The U.S. is damned if it does and damned if it doesn't because of its symbolic and historical meanings for Europeans. Anti-Americanism has nothing to do with policies or real events (unlike for example, anti-American antipathies in Chile or Vietnam which are incidentally, milder than in Europe). Anti-Americanism, as Markovits demonstrates, is entirely about the self-perceptions of a visible, vocal, and opinion-shaping milieu in European society.

I hope readers will not be dissuaded by the misguided ravings of "what'sanelitist." Uncouth Nation makes fascinating reading. Its arguments are compelling and well supported. The lesson that emerges from this book is an enduring one that goes beyond its subject. Markovits shows us exactly why and how words matter.

This is a good book on this subject but ANTI AMERICANISM IN WESTERN EUROPE, A CULTURAL PROBLEM. Hits the nail on the head better.

Markovits provides an insightful analysis of anti-Americanism amongst the influential intellectual and political elites of Western Europe. It is interesting that this hatred of the USA exists on both sides of the political spectrum; the author points out how since the Second World War anti-Americanism has migrated from the traditionalist right to the left. Especially since the collapse of the Soviet Empire, the phenomenon has become ever more pronounced and prevalent in the mass media. Jean-Francois Revel had previously examined the nature of the beast in his excellent book Anti-Americanism.

Markovits argues that it has its own momentum and is not really fuelled by American actions; the attitude is used by the Eurocrats in an attempt to foster a type of pan-European patriotism. As such, it is a rather toxic glue to hold the EU together and not a firm foundation for the nascent superpower. It is clear that the phenomenon is harnessed to plaster the cracks in the wall and to obscure the very real problems faced by the old continent. Scapegoating can only work for a limited period where after the great majority of ordinary Europeans will wake up and smell the burning tires.

Markovits provides examples of the contradictory nature of European complaints against America, coming to the convincing conclusion that it is weirdly irrational and emotionally based. As evidence he charts the long history of the attitude that stretches back to the settlement of the Americas. One is tempted to laugh at the childishness of these early writers but for the fact that this is the same level of discourse encountered today throughout much of the European left-leaning media. See for example Can We Trust the BBC? by Robin Aitken.

Much of its manifestation may be irrational, silly and juvenile, but there is good reason to fear that a sinister form of derangement underlie it. He devotes an entire chapter to the similarities between European anti-Americanism and resurgent Antisemitism. For example, in its migration from Right to Left, its evil twin Antisemitism has moved with it. The Resurgence of Anti-Semitism by Bernard Harrison provides a brilliant exploration and analyses of the new Antisemitism under the mask of Anti-Zionism on the European Liberal Left.

The author is alarmed that this demonization of Israel is not restricted to the Hard Left but very common amongst social democrats and environmentalists too. He believes anti-Americanism and anti-Zionism are inseparable, growing side by side in Western Europe, rooted in the same angst and resentments. Politicians like Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schoeder have exploited this sentiment for their own benefits. Although Sarkozy and Merkel are admirable friends of the USA, they may just prove to be the exception as these attitudes are deeply ingrained in the Euro elites.

The author observes that anti-Zionism is openly Antisemitic in some instances but in the larger context it serves as a respectable vehicle and protective cloak for Antisemitism. Old Europe is undoubtedly in deep trouble. I recommend that Uncouth Nation be read in conjunction with those books dealing with Europe's decline, like Menace in Europe: Why the Continent's Crisis Is America's, Too by Claire Berlinski, Londonistan by Melanie Phillips, While Europe Slept by Bruce Bawer, The Force of Reason by the late Oriana Fallaci and The Last Days of Europe: Epitaph for an Old Continent by Walter Laqueur.

Whilst the Eurocracy is now militantly secularist, I don't rule out a return to religion by the people. The most disturbing scenario would be a repeat of the 1930s, by for example the embrace of a charismatic pan-European leader in the face of overwhelming crises like major terror attacks, instead of a return to classical liberal values. Part of the problem is, Europe does not have much of a principled Right, except perhaps the UK Tories and the libertarian parties of Scandinavia.

Oriana Fallaci compared the old Italian Right of the Risorgimento to a noble lady that committed suicide - an apt description of the senescent Christian Democrats that have accepted the tenets of welfarism and pan-Europeanism. Europe is not competing well in the globalised market and is still to a large extent in denial about the threat of terrorism. Now on the East, Europeans are faced with the rise of Putin's increasingly belligerent criminal state.

I just cannot see the entire behemoth of 27 states uniting, rather, I suspect, a core group might form that includes Germany, France, the Benelux countries, Italy and some other Central European states. The rest might retain some autonomy but be closely integrated economically. Markovits is under no illusion about the possibility of a Democrat administration diminishing European anti-Americanism. It will make no difference at all, since it's an emotional condition and is gathering momentum. In addition to this superb work by Markovits, I recommend What's Left? by Nick Cohen and Hating America: A History by Barry Rubin.

This is indeed an interesting and thought provoking book. As an immigrant who came to the US as a graduate student, chose to stay here and become a citizen I shared many of the feelings of the Europeans expressed in the book. I was struck by the outward, easy-going nature of Americans, the ability to engage in easy banter with strangers and the absense of any sacred cows. Yet I also felt that there was something superficial about the character of the culture. While the easy mannerisms made for easy deal making,whether political or personal, I always came out feeling that there was something amiss concluding that the people were shallow - American men have buddies, not friends. In spite of these negative feelings, however, there was always something very atractive about everything American that has made me stay for the last 40 years. Perhaps it is their restlessness, their "can do" approach to everything and above all else their childlike enthusiasm for life. Margaret Thatcher wrote that she felt 10 years younger every time she landed in the US. Which brings me what I see as an important omission in the book - There is not enough treatment of the rejoinders to the various books and articles on anti-Americanism quoted in this book? One has to believe that there were enough, either in the form of scholarly books or op-ed writings or public forums. Americans are savvy enough to point out to the Europeans that they, Americans, represent the front line of the march of time whether it is civil rights, space program or information technology. (The belief in "Manifest Destiny" is not entirely dead). Also,I imagine there are enough intellectually honest people in Europe that someone must have come up with convincing or at any rate strong counterarguments at some point. If the blame for anti-Americanism is to lay at the feet of modernity where do the Europeans think it began? With the invention of the gun powder or the spinning jenny?

The connection between anti-Americanism and anisemitism is fascinating although not clear to me. Like the author I have travelled frequently to Europe and continue to do so. I have not come across this phenomenon either in informal discussions or public discourse either in print or in the visual media. An interesting point in the book about the significantly positive image of the US in India - it has more to do with the feeling (or wish) that the US is doing the dirty work of going after the islamic militants and particularly those in Pakistan. Still that did not stop many Indians from echoing the popular refrain "America had it coming".

All this merely says that people respond through emotions and not necessarily through an objective analyses. So does it really matter what the European elite or anyone else think? After all anti-Germanism is not dead in France or The Netherlands nor is Anti-France-ism dead in the UK nor anti-Sweden-ism dead in Norway.

It's perfectly fine for some folks to consider themselves rivals of other folks. And I'm not too concerned about such attitudes between Europeans and Americans. Still, there is a point at which such attitudes can become counterproductive and lead to very serious mischaracterizations, demonization, and open strife.

This book, by Andrei Markovits, has plenty of material about these issues. I found it interesting to discover that Markovits is originally from Timisoara, a city I've been to a couple of times. And I also found it interesting to see that Markovits, like myself, is politically a liberal and has reacted to the fact that to be considered a "progressive" today, it's almost essential to have credentials as an anti-American and an anti-Zionist.

As Markovits explains near the start of his book, an aversion to America is "unifying West Europeans more than any other political emotion - with the exception of a common hostility toward Israel." And the attitudes towards Israel are obviously not simply due to its ties to the United States or its "occupation" of land. Britain, Spain, and France have ties to the United States and are "occupying" Ulster, the Basque, and Corsica respectively, but "no European academic has attempted to boycott British" or French or Spanish universities for this!

At what point do we have "real" anti-Americanism, not just relatively benign rivalry? Markovits cites Joffe, who says the elements of the real thing are stereotypization, denigration, ascriptions of omnipotence and conspiracy, and obsession.

I know that some elements of American society are present in Europe. Plenty of people in Europe now speak English, and there are something like 1650 hamburger restaurants in Germany (Markovits reminds us that there are also about 12,000 Turkish fast food shops and 23,000 Italian restaurants in Germany). Still, I don't see this as scary from a liberal perspective!

There is a very thoughtful chapter on anti-Semitism. And perhaps the most serious point is that European anti-Zionists rarely show much concern for Arabs or Muslims. Instead, they tended to ignore killings of Muslims by Hindu mobs, and they often supported Serbian attacks on Bosnian Muslims, given that the United States supported the Bosnians.

For many years, I avoided using the term "anti-Semitism." It seemed too vague. But I finally have decided to use it in situations where I see people participate in a gratuitous war against the Jews. On the other hand, this is probably not a very good definition of anti-Semitism on my part. Markovits, by way of comparison, says that "above all, anti-Semitism is an obsession that blames all Jews for evil deeds, dangerous acts, and subversive behavior independent of how each individual Jew - or even Jews as a collective - behaves in reality." As Markovits further explains, there are some clearly anti-Semitic "dimensions" to some "criticisms" of Israel. These include the `singling out' of Israel, the double standards, the constant comparison and equation of Israel with the National Socialists, and the utilization of classic anti-Semitic depictions and stereotypes.

Not all European nations have had the same frequency of anti-Semitic violence. And I think that's a good way to look at the relationships between such violence and, say, anti-Semitic propaganda. For example, Finland, Luxemburg, Ireland, and Portugal have had the least anti-Semitic violence, while France, Belgium, and Holland have had the most.

Meanwhile, in Eastern Europe, Markovits finds less anti-Americanism and less anti-Zionism, with the main anti-Semitic theme being that Jews are Bolsheviks.

The author quotes some amazing comments by Deborah Orr about Israel. Writing in the Independent, Orr tops some gratuitously malicious statements about Israel with the following: "If the Jews `continue to insist that everyone with a word to say against Israel is an anti-Semite, [they are] going to find one day that the world is once more divided neatly between anti-Semites and Jews.'" I think that the sort of argument Orr has supplied is indeed going to lead to trouble. Do we say that the world is divided into anti-Tutsis and Tutsis? Markovits says that, "Oxford University dons would never have dreamt of banning Russians, Croats, Serbs, Spaniards, Sudanese, or even Ulster Protestants from their laboratories." But this did in fact happen to an Israeli at Oxford.

We see some other examples of hypocritical language. Even the Europeans rarely say something such as "I hate Bush, but I do not mind America's existence." On the other hand, Israel's existence is questioned all the time. When Tom Paulin describes Israel as a "'historical obscenity' that `never had a right to exist,'" some folks defend him on the grounds of "free speech." But when Mona Baker fires people for not being sufficiently anti-Israeli, many of these same folks defend her right to do what she pleases, throwing free speech to the winds. I think this is an excellent point by Markovits.

I think that European anti-Americanism has resulted in some denial of reality. Markovits cites a poll by the European Commission showing that 59% of Europeans see Israel as being a great threat to world peace. That ranks Israel first, ahead of Iran, North Korea, the United States, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, in that order. And such ideas are coming from the political Left, not the political Right: "the Guardian, the Observer, the Independent, and the BBC" were not "under the influence of the right-wing extremists of the National Front."

I found this book very interesting, and I recommend it.