Anti-Americanism (Hardcover)

~ Jean-Francois Revel (Author)
Key Phrases: United States, New York, North Korea (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In 1972, Revel shocked the world with his best-selling book, Without Marx or Jesus, in which he defended America against global denunciation. Thirty years later, Revel is back with the same purpose. His latest book, a bestseller in France, comes at a crucial time. It seeks to explain the root cause of the world's and particularly Europe's obsession with hating America. He does not pretend that America is perfect. But he argues that the daily denunciations exceed the bounds of reasonable criticism. Furthermore, Revel says, European critics are quick to point fingers when they should be looking in the mirror. Rather than mock America's 2000 presidential election, he notes, Europeans should have been examining their own abysmally run European Union. He attributes such inconsistencies to Europeans' desperate desire to "project our faults onto America so as to absolve ourselves." Revel further finds fault with the antiglobalization movement. Though the movement claims to oppose inequality and poverty in underdeveloped countries, its true anathema is liberal capitalism, whose chief representative is the United States. The barrage of attacks will make it impossible for the United States to confer with European officials or take any criticism seriously. It is in Europe's interest, Revel says, to put aside its envy and consider a more constructive relationship with the United States. As a French citizen, the author laments the sorry state of his home country; he believes that careful consideration of American principles will strengthen Europe. Revel writes with a style at once informative and incisive. He possesses a sarcastic wit that is undoubtedly as irritating to his critics as it is endearing to his supporters.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

After the 9/11 attack on the United States, the brief moment of sympathy for America soon began giving way to blame. In France and other quarters of Europe, and elsewhere in the world, it was said that the Americans had brought this violence upon themselves. The U.S. was a "cowboy" nation unwilling to abide by the will of the United Nations and other multilateral institutions, and bent on pursuing its objectives at any cost. It was the "hyperpower" whose corporations manipulated world markets and whose riches are acquired at the price of Third World impoverishment. No wonder it had been attacked!

Angered by the assault against a nation he knows and admires, the distinguished French intellectual Jean-Francois Revel has come to America's defense in "Anti-Americanism," a biting and erudite book that (paradoxically, given his country's specially vehement attacks on the U.S. and its policies) spent several weeks late last year on top of France's best-seller list.

Revel believes that what he calls the "anti-American obsession" is based on a willful disregard of the most obvious facts of American political and social life, its economic freedom and democratic traditions. He sees much anti-Americanism simply as anti-capitalism in disguise on the part of those--in Europe and the rest of the world--who are still committed to doctrines that are at heart illiberal and even totalitarian. In probing the origins of the notion that America is the source of all evil--imperialistic, greedy and ruthlessly competitive--he shows how these charges ultimately stem from weakness and envy on the part of those who make them and are a neurotic effort to find an easy explanation for Europe's own loss of status in the postwar era. As far as America's "unilateralism" is concerned, Revel asserts that the U.S. is forced to act alone because Europe has repeatedly failed to act in the cause of collective security. As far as America's sins of "globalization" are concerned, Revel shows that the developing countries of the world want more, not less access to rich markets and corporate investment.

Jean-Francois Revel explores the strengths of America and exposes the agendas of the anti-Americans in his own country, in Europe and around the world. At a time when it seems that much of the world is marching against America, Revel's clearheaded analysis of the protestors' motives shows what they're really marching for and what the world will lose if their anti-Americanism should ever take hold.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Encounter Books; 1 edition (November 25, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1893554856
• ISBN-13: 978-1893554856
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #742,024 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

146 of 152 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars French journalist thoughtfully re-examines anti-Americanism, October 6, 2003

By	Govindan Nair (Vienna, VA United States) - See all my reviews

~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.~

135 of 145 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and incisive, November 6, 2003

By	Sophie Masson (Armidale, New South Wales Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

60 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent read, November 17, 2003

By	Stefano D'Amiano (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

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