Anti-Americanism in Europe: A Cultural Problem (Hoover Press, 2008) is being released by the Hoover Institution as part of its new Hoover Classics series. The series features reissues of significant books published by Hoover Press that have helped to shape public policy and opinion.
“This book argues that the deep cultural roots of European anti-Americanism predate contemporary partisan concerns,” says author Russell A. Berman, a Hoover senior fellow. In the new introduction to the reissued book, Berman explains that anti-Americanism in Europe is a problem that emerges from European culture and will be with us for long time. He adds that not all Europeans are anti-American but that we should be aware that, in the proper circumstances, some European politicians will likely opt to play the “anti-American card” if it benefits them, especially at election times. In turn, the phenomenon of anti-Americanism in Europe has been explicitly politicized in domestic United States debates through the frequent (but nonetheless erroneous) argument that Bush administration policies, having squandered European goodwill, are fully responsible for the anti-American chorus.
Berman explores various dimensions of contemporary European anti-Americanism in the volume’s five essays. The first examines several recent surveys to determine the scope of anti-American sentiment, especially since September 11, with a focus on Germany. The second describes how anti-Americanism goes beyond rational debates over policy—a critic of this or that U.S. policy is hardly an anti-American—and takes on an obsessive character. In the third essay he examines the shape of anti-Americanism in the debates over the Iraq war. The fourth essay explores another aspect of anti-Americanism: the reluctance to criticize bad regimes for fear of siding with the United States. The final essay looks at another variation of anti-Americanism: the movement against globalization.
Berman, the Walter A. Haas Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University, is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.
Anti-Americanism in Europe: A Cultural Problem.
by Russell A. Berman
| ISBN: 978-0-8179-4511-4 | $14.95 cloth |
| 186 pages | January, 2008 |
