The American Enemy: The History of French Anti-Americanism

by Philippe Roger, Sharon Bowman (Translation)

Georges-Louis Buffon, an eighteenth-century French scientist, was the first to promote the widespread idea that nature in the New World was deficient; in America, which he had never visited, dogs don't bark, birds don't sing, and—by extension—humans are weaker, less intelligent, and less potent. Thomas Jefferson, infuriated by these claims, brought a seven-foot-tall carcass of a moose from America to the entry hall of his Parisian hotel, but the five-foot-tall Buffon remained unimpressed and refused to change his views on America's inferiority.

Buffon, as Philippe Roger demonstrates here, was just one of the first in a long line of Frenchmen who have built a history of anti-Americanism in that country, a progressive history that is alternately ludicrous and trenchant. The American Enemy is Roger's bestselling and widely acclaimed history of French anti-Americanism, presented here in English translation for the first time.

With elegance and good humor, Roger goes back 200 years to unearth the deep roots of this anti-Americanism and trace its changing nature, from the belittling, as Buffon did, of the "savage American" to France's resigned dependency on America for goods and commerce and finally to the fear of America's global domination in light of France's thwarted imperial ambitions. Roger sees French anti-Americanism as barely acquainted with actual fact; rather, anti-Americanism is a cultural pillar for the French, America an idea that the country and its culture have long defined themselves against.

Sharon Bowman's fine translation of this magisterial work brings French anti-Americanism into the broad light of day, offering fascinating reading for Americans who care about our image abroad and how it came about.


“Mr. Roger almost single-handedly creates a new field of study, tracing the nuances and imagery of anti-Americanism in France over 250 years. He shows that far from being a specific reaction to recent American policies, it has been knit into the very substance of French intellectual and cultural life. . . . His book stuns with its accumulated detail and analysis.”—Edward Rothstein, New York Times
                                                                                            
“A brilliant and exhaustive guide to the history of French Ameriphobia.”—Simon Schama, New Yorker

Genres: History, Nonfiction

536 pages, Hardcover

First published September 5, 2002

Reviews

[Owlseyes]

"France is the country with the deepest, most sedimented reservoir of anti-American arguments. Its long genealogy has been well documented over the years, most recently by Philippe Roger, who argues that French anti Americanism is older than the United States (Roger 2002)"
in: Anti-Americanisms in France
By Sophie Meunier,
Princeton University
in: https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/d...



"Mr Roger traces it to the second half of the 18th century, when a circle of naturalists linked to the Enlightenment thinkers—French botanists, zoologists and anthropologists—returned from the new world with little but scorn. The species were small. The people were backward. The land was marshy. One of them, Cornelius de Pauw, wrote a chapter entitled “On the Americans' Moronic Spirit” and judged them “deprived of both intelligence and perfectibility”. Voltaire wondered if one should not “marvel that there are flies in America”."

in: Anti-Americanism in France
Mutual contempt
in: http://www.economist.com/node/3860580...



"To all scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, responsible citizens who were disappointed by the decision of the president the United States, I want to say that they will find in France a second homeland.
"I call on them, come and work here with us, to work together on concrete solutions for our climate, our environment".
E. Macron



"Especially American "botanists, zoologists and anthropologists" shall be welcome in France, to improve its "climate and environment""
Owlseyes

"Warmists too?"
Owlseyes

Imaginary dialogue

E. M. -mais oui, les "wormists"
Owlseyes-Sir, you mean the "warmists"? right?
E.M. -certainement les "warmest"!
Owlseyes-surely, the "warmest of the warmists", right?
E.M. -c'est parfeite
Owslseys-That's cool!!
E.M. -??? mais...???

[Jolie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting- and challenging (have a French-English dictionary nearby, lots of French words I guarantee you've never seen before)

[Shawn]

Roger shows that French intellectual culture has a long-standing gripe against Americans and even they cannot explain why they talk merde as they do.

[David]

"striking history of over two centuries of anti-American discourse in France." -- Foreign Affairs Magazine, Jul/Aug 07