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Title: Anti-Americanism by Jean Francois Revel, Diarmid Cammell ISBN: 1-893554-85-6 Publisher: Encounter Books Pub. Date: September, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.32 (19 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Concise, Well-Written Thesis
Comment: Contrary to the psychological needs of some reviewers, Revel doesn't present a stridently pro-American polemic, a la Rupert Murdoch's Fox News. By linking the US to the liberal democratic tradition, he shows how this tradition is under fire from totalitarian mindsets on the Right and the Left. He provides numerous examples of oxymoronic "criticisms" (really just attacks) of America, all of which undermine the theoretical and intellectual qualifications of the political elites tossing them out. When listed side-by-side, the contradictory nature of these ongoing misstatements is shocking.
At the end of the 20th century, America is the lone superpower in part because the rest of the world has avoided the self-criticism and self-examination that are desperately required of liberal democracies. America has been running the race while the rest of the world has meandered around the track. Anti-Americanism wastes resources that could actually be used to compete with America; furthermore, such reasoned competition could make the world a better place. Revel laments Europe's unwillingness to take political risks, and rely instead on the very safe, very proven method of attacking the Americans. The results are very harmful indeed.
Finally, Revel concludes that the end is not in sight. Whereas polls indicate that the average European citizen (an ironical term, as he points out) is just not that obsessed with bashing the US, political elites on the Right and Left ARE obsessed and will stay that way. Look for the 21st century to be another American one.
This book is well-written and foot-noted and clocks in at 176 pages. Very useful.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Frenchman defends what is good about America
Comment: Call Mr. Revel, the venerable and prolific French social critic, a cliche-slicer. As much a critique of France as it is a defense of America, "Anti-Americanism" takes apart the most common accusations of the left against America--without lapsing into sychophantic rave about the world's only superpower. Revel has a strong historical memory and an absolute intollerance for cant and hypocrisy of any kind. He is often witty and sardonic--an appropiate touch then addressing some of the ridiculous anti-American chargs.
He reminds us that in the Twentieth Century, America saved Europe--and the planet--from two brutal dictatorships, both of which were generated in Europe: Nazism and Communionism. He also defends the broad outlines of the present "war on terror," and speaks the truth about the Islamic threat to democracy in America, Europe, and worldwide.
Revel did not completely convince me of the goodness of globalization, but, nevertheless, he refutes extemist and uninformed criticisms of it by pointing out some of its salutary effects for third world countries (not just America).
If you are tired of "the world according to the New York Times," then read and savor this book. Apparently, not all French people are unhinged when it comes to geopolitical matters. (And how can we really hate the country that both gave us Blaise Pascal and savors and supports jazz as it does?)
Douglas Groothuis
Rating: 4
Summary: Enthusaistic Argument
Comment: I can't help but believe that Ravel is sincerely trying to tell his fellow countrymen to look past the absurdity of blaming America for everything and to fix their own problems. After all--what caused the world's problems before the USA came along? His arguments are simple and clear. My only complaint is that his argument is so easy to prove that he ends up "running up the score" on America's French critics and in so doing often repeats himself.
Much of Ravel's discussion is based on the same logic as a Dire Straits song with the line "Two men say they're Jesus-one of them must be wrong." It's a clear and easily proven argument, even though we all know that BOTH of them are certainly wrong. In the same vein, Ravel presents many of France's self-contradictory criticisms of the US as a way of demonstrating the absurdity of the French (and often European) criticisms. For example, the French criticize the US for being both too free-market oriented and too protectionist; too lawless and too controlled by the judiciary; having too little culture and having too influential of a culture; spending too little on the arts and drowning the French in their spending on the arts; being too isolationist and too interventionist; etc. It's a lot like the Left in this country accusing the Bush administration of both doing too much and too little on the War on Terror. Well-one of them must be wrong!
With such a simply proven argument, Ravel must take up much of the book repeatedly laying out examples of these self-contradictory arguments, and thus beats the proverbial horse to smithereens. I suppose he believes that this is what it takes to show people who refuse to believe what is in front of them what the truth is, like saying: "The sky is blue. The sky is blue. Look up-the sky is blue!", And so on.
In fact-even this is not enough to convince some to judge by some of the negative reviews of this book. One reviewer even called him a "French Uncle Tom." I wonder what this reviewer would call Michael Moore, Tim Robbins, Janine what's-her-name, and so on. Uncle Jacques?
There is much to be liked in the French culture and in the French people themselves. They have many strengths in many areas. Unfortunately it seems that rational thinking among their intelligentsia is not one of them. Hysterical finger-pointing, hyperbole (e.g. "[America's] corporations pillage the face of the world with impunity"), and name-calling do not substitute for reasoned arguments.
Four stars instead of five because of the repetitive nature of the argument. Excellent book, though.
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Title: In Denial: Historians, Communism, & Espionage by John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr ISBN: 1893554724 Publisher: Encounter Books Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror by David Frum, Richard Perle ISBN: 1400061946 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 30 December, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order by Robert Kagan ISBN: 1400040930 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 28 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Allies: The U.S., Britain, and Europe, and the War in Iraq by William Shawcross, Peter Osnos ISBN: 1586482165 Publisher: PublicAffairs Pub. Date: 06 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: Without Marx or Jesus by Jean-Francois Revel ISBN: 0440597293 Publisher: Delacorte Press Pub. Date: August, 1972 List Price(USD): $2.65 |
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