What do you think?
Rate this book
America through Foreign Eyes
Do Americans care what foreigners think about the United States? This book makes the case that they should. In these pages, Jorge Casta~neda writes from his unique vantage point as a former Foreign Minister of Mexico who has lived, studied, and worked in America. He offers an impressionistic, analytical, and intuitive review of his experience in the country over the last half-century, and shows how foreigners can provide perspective on the United States' true nature. Casta~neda brings a different viewpoint to issues ranging from purported American exceptionalism, uniformity, race and religion, culture, immigration, and the death penalty.Visitors and analysts, from Dickens to Naipaul, have generally asked the right questions and described America's most salient features and mysteries. But, they have not always followed through with answers and explanations. Casta~neda draws from his work with American civil society and government authorities to provide both insight and context. Americans have long seen their country as "exceptional," standing outside of history, but by comparing its contemporary politics and culture with those of other countries, Casta~neda shows how increasing nationalism and nostalgia are actually making the US more like other countries.Casta~neda admits that most Americans have never cared much about what a foreigner thinks about their country, but the dynamic is shifting. The outside world means more to the US than ever before, and Americans should care about what foreigners think since they are now so sensitive to what foreigners do. Since Trump's election in 2016, American politics increasingly resemble those of Europe, Latin America, and parts of Asia, such that pining for a lost and glorious past is as American as it is British, Mexican, Chinese, or Italian. Now, the questions that serious, knowledgeable, and sympathetic foreigners address to Americans may be the ones Americans ask--or should ask--for themselves.
320 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 30, 2020
41 people are currently reading
186 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
April 13, 2022
El Señor Professor Castañeda has graced us in this new book with a look into our American ways, and for the most part the view is not encouraging, although he does it in a kindly, rather didactic way.
How many times do we wish for honest, direct, and constructive feedback about ourselves, our feelings, our looks, our opinions? We can look into a mirror, but it only shows us what is on the surface. It takes a qualified, thoughtful observer to shine a light on the dark corners of our souls. If that has ever been your wish, then you should enjoy this book. It is focused on America and Americans and offers trenchant, penetrating, sometimes stinging comments in a friendly sort of way.
The Professor is well qualified to evaluate us Americans as he himself has been in America for a long time, as a professor at our universities after education at Princeton and the University of Paris, and after service as Mexico's Foreign Minister, which brought him into close contact with the familiar names in US government since Year 2000. He is certainly qualified, then, to hold opinions about us, but he also lards his opinions with a veritable blizzard of facts, figures, and references to historical persons and commentary covering the entire existence of the US. There is so much reference material here that I am as always suspicious that the author must have had a platoon of graduate students compiling an enormous pile of reference notecards, so if you like factual comparisons you will love this book.
The Professor proceeds to dismantle our fondest notions and myths about our foundational origins, our social uniqueness, and our 'exceptional' place in the universe. However, his tone throughout is one of thoughtfulness, sympathy, and hope for us, and he recognizes that we have been economically and socially wounded by our own politics since 2016. You will also learn from him to recognize the strange mixture of pragmatism and hypocrisy that affects our approaches to culture, capitalism, immigration, race, religion, and incarceration, as well as a host of quirky attitudes we Americans seem to have about many things.
The Professor explains with clarity that while the US enjoyed the world's biggest and best middle class the need for a welfare state was thereby diminished, a condition that is now ripe for change. He explains the confluence of guns, religion, and anti-science with political conservatism and how it leads to dysfunctional politics. At the end he repeats that the US is still has the ability to reinvent itself (as always), make policy corrections, and continue to lead the world in so many economic and cultural metrics. He vigorously disclaims that the US is anywhere near being eclipsed by globalization, provided the coming generation can change our dysfunctional political system, which is based on outmoded notions of rights and suppression of minorities.
It is quite beyond my ken to criticize anything the Professor has put forward. Early in the book he alludes to the drive that Americans have toward making money, and he trots out a bate of observers who saw that in us from the days of our founding. But, I felt he could have elucidated the possible reasons why a colonizing people, set free from the bounds of the stifling culture of Europe, facing a boundless supply of space and freedom all of a sudden, would have devolved into that attitude. He covers the subject of our 2nd Amendment, but the irrationality of our gun culture is hardly affected--as seen by foreigners it is unfathomable. He covered well the subject of slavery and racism as a root cause of many problems for us, but I did not think he adequately covered the presence of poverty and lack of education as a driving force in racism, drugs, crime, and incarceration.
These thoughts laid out rather quickly upon finishing the book. Some further reflections may alter or add to this at a later date.
How many times do we wish for honest, direct, and constructive feedback about ourselves, our feelings, our looks, our opinions? We can look into a mirror, but it only shows us what is on the surface. It takes a qualified, thoughtful observer to shine a light on the dark corners of our souls. If that has ever been your wish, then you should enjoy this book. It is focused on America and Americans and offers trenchant, penetrating, sometimes stinging comments in a friendly sort of way.
The Professor is well qualified to evaluate us Americans as he himself has been in America for a long time, as a professor at our universities after education at Princeton and the University of Paris, and after service as Mexico's Foreign Minister, which brought him into close contact with the familiar names in US government since Year 2000. He is certainly qualified, then, to hold opinions about us, but he also lards his opinions with a veritable blizzard of facts, figures, and references to historical persons and commentary covering the entire existence of the US. There is so much reference material here that I am as always suspicious that the author must have had a platoon of graduate students compiling an enormous pile of reference notecards, so if you like factual comparisons you will love this book.
The Professor proceeds to dismantle our fondest notions and myths about our foundational origins, our social uniqueness, and our 'exceptional' place in the universe. However, his tone throughout is one of thoughtfulness, sympathy, and hope for us, and he recognizes that we have been economically and socially wounded by our own politics since 2016. You will also learn from him to recognize the strange mixture of pragmatism and hypocrisy that affects our approaches to culture, capitalism, immigration, race, religion, and incarceration, as well as a host of quirky attitudes we Americans seem to have about many things.
The Professor explains with clarity that while the US enjoyed the world's biggest and best middle class the need for a welfare state was thereby diminished, a condition that is now ripe for change. He explains the confluence of guns, religion, and anti-science with political conservatism and how it leads to dysfunctional politics. At the end he repeats that the US is still has the ability to reinvent itself (as always), make policy corrections, and continue to lead the world in so many economic and cultural metrics. He vigorously disclaims that the US is anywhere near being eclipsed by globalization, provided the coming generation can change our dysfunctional political system, which is based on outmoded notions of rights and suppression of minorities.
It is quite beyond my ken to criticize anything the Professor has put forward. Early in the book he alludes to the drive that Americans have toward making money, and he trots out a bate of observers who saw that in us from the days of our founding. But, I felt he could have elucidated the possible reasons why a colonizing people, set free from the bounds of the stifling culture of Europe, facing a boundless supply of space and freedom all of a sudden, would have devolved into that attitude. He covers the subject of our 2nd Amendment, but the irrationality of our gun culture is hardly affected--as seen by foreigners it is unfathomable. He covered well the subject of slavery and racism as a root cause of many problems for us, but I did not think he adequately covered the presence of poverty and lack of education as a driving force in racism, drugs, crime, and incarceration.
These thoughts laid out rather quickly upon finishing the book. Some further reflections may alter or add to this at a later date.
August 14, 2020
Jorge Castañeda’s new book, America Through Foreign Eyes, invites readers to consider the lore of American Exceptionalism. What exactly is it? Does it still exist? And if so, can Americans yet claim it with a straight face while Donald Trump is president?
The author of this 260-page book offers a layered perspective. A Mexican national who has spent decades living and working in the US (and in other parts of the world), Castañeda knows the nuances of American culture and language yet manages to maintain the detached viewpoint of an outsider. Only once did I notice him using first person plural – “we” – when talking about the country he knows so well north of the Rio Grande.
America’s exceptionalism, he writes, started with its economic creation of a middle class in the latter part of the nineteenth century. While Germany was the first country to offer a state-sponsored social safety net under Bismarck in the 1880s, America’s DNA was cast: a populous middle class de facto was in and of itself a social safety net. While most European nations’ class stratifications persisted, America made the argument that a country’s economic engine, and consequent social mobility, would provide the necessary benefits for its populace.
Of course, many Americans were excluded from the blessings inherent to the establishment of a middle class: Blacks, Latinos, Chinese immigrants, Native Americans. More on this type of exceptionalism below. The devastations of the Great Depression forced the US to institute social safety nets in the 1930s. America, as a society, has struggled ever since with the necessity of state-sponsored social programs. Castañeda reminds us that – another form of exceptionalism – the US is the only one of the thirty-five industrialized nations in the world today that doesn’t offer universal healthcare to its citizenry. Try to fight a pandemic without a national healthcare safety net.
Castañeda, however, sees that American Exceptionalism is a pendulum that swings both ways. The emergence of the world’s first middle-class society (again, restricted mostly to whites), produced an American “mass culture.” This mass culture was a form of social and economic egalitarianism enviable to the rest of the world. Products from automobiles and refrigerators to radios and televisions were not solely the providence of elites, but of all.
In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, most of the states in the union jumped on the compulsory public education bandwagon, while long-established European societies clung to idea that education was the mainstay of elites. The literacy rate of 88 percent for American whites in 1870 was comparably much higher than that of British, French, and German citizens. Additionally, the widespread proliferation of free public libraries was an American innovation. The US was the first country, Castañeda illustrates, to favor its middle classes and not just its elites. This was and is exceptional, in the best of ways.
But therein lies the rub.
The historic and deeply-engrained restrictions of Blacks and browns from this egalitarian favor is anathema to Castañeda. Continuing the above comparison, the literacy rate for Blacks in America in 1870 is estimated at 20 percent, rising to 70 percent by 1910. Castañeda references other foreign observers – 150 years’ worth – similarly calling out this society’s racism, describing it as “the greatest condemnation of the American experience . . . the most flagrant and hateful contradiction between the promise of the country at birth and its reality nearly two hundred and fifty years later.”
This is a horrific exceptionalism. Castañeda points out a reality I had not previously considered: While the British, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Belgians all enforced and exploited slavery, only the United States and Brazil – of today’s industrialized nations – did so on their own land. This odiousness, much more than a past blemish, actively plagues this land.
Latino and Asian immigrants, he writes, have had better success than Blacks at integrating into American society. Why? While these immigrants have suffered deep exclusions, neither group was institutionally enslaved. As one of many examples to illustrate racism’s long reach, he states that the intergenerational transfer of wealth – 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s “get a $20,000 loan from your parents” – is essentially non-existent for Black families in this country.
America, he writes, is exceptional because it allowed and promoted equality for many. Yet, America’s persistent and centuries-long exclusions towards Blacks and other minorities nullifies foundational American credos such as “all are created equal” and “liberty and justice for all.” Additionally, American economic inequality, currently on a forty-year run, is making America like the countries of yesterday’s Europe and like many other countries today where elites enjoy and cultivate favor at the expense of the lower and middle classes.
Castañeda also dives deep into explanations on America’s current political gridlock, arguing that our political system – its original participants a relatively small group of white landowners – is incompatible with today’s entrenched inequality and surging heterogeneity of the voting populace.
An admirer, participant in and benefactor of the American experiment, Castañeda bemoans the dulling of America’s exceptional shine. No longer favoring the middle class, America’s inequalities make her like so many other countries in the world. She will need, he writes, to forge ahead as the other industrialized countries have done by offering additional social safety nets. The coronavirus’s far-reaching effects upon America’s public health and economy – exacerbated by Trump’s inept and vacant leadership – have verified Castañeda’s views which received their final edits months before Trump claimed, in February, that the virus would simply “disappear.”
The author of this 260-page book offers a layered perspective. A Mexican national who has spent decades living and working in the US (and in other parts of the world), Castañeda knows the nuances of American culture and language yet manages to maintain the detached viewpoint of an outsider. Only once did I notice him using first person plural – “we” – when talking about the country he knows so well north of the Rio Grande.
America’s exceptionalism, he writes, started with its economic creation of a middle class in the latter part of the nineteenth century. While Germany was the first country to offer a state-sponsored social safety net under Bismarck in the 1880s, America’s DNA was cast: a populous middle class de facto was in and of itself a social safety net. While most European nations’ class stratifications persisted, America made the argument that a country’s economic engine, and consequent social mobility, would provide the necessary benefits for its populace.
Of course, many Americans were excluded from the blessings inherent to the establishment of a middle class: Blacks, Latinos, Chinese immigrants, Native Americans. More on this type of exceptionalism below. The devastations of the Great Depression forced the US to institute social safety nets in the 1930s. America, as a society, has struggled ever since with the necessity of state-sponsored social programs. Castañeda reminds us that – another form of exceptionalism – the US is the only one of the thirty-five industrialized nations in the world today that doesn’t offer universal healthcare to its citizenry. Try to fight a pandemic without a national healthcare safety net.
Castañeda, however, sees that American Exceptionalism is a pendulum that swings both ways. The emergence of the world’s first middle-class society (again, restricted mostly to whites), produced an American “mass culture.” This mass culture was a form of social and economic egalitarianism enviable to the rest of the world. Products from automobiles and refrigerators to radios and televisions were not solely the providence of elites, but of all.
In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, most of the states in the union jumped on the compulsory public education bandwagon, while long-established European societies clung to idea that education was the mainstay of elites. The literacy rate of 88 percent for American whites in 1870 was comparably much higher than that of British, French, and German citizens. Additionally, the widespread proliferation of free public libraries was an American innovation. The US was the first country, Castañeda illustrates, to favor its middle classes and not just its elites. This was and is exceptional, in the best of ways.
But therein lies the rub.
The historic and deeply-engrained restrictions of Blacks and browns from this egalitarian favor is anathema to Castañeda. Continuing the above comparison, the literacy rate for Blacks in America in 1870 is estimated at 20 percent, rising to 70 percent by 1910. Castañeda references other foreign observers – 150 years’ worth – similarly calling out this society’s racism, describing it as “the greatest condemnation of the American experience . . . the most flagrant and hateful contradiction between the promise of the country at birth and its reality nearly two hundred and fifty years later.”
This is a horrific exceptionalism. Castañeda points out a reality I had not previously considered: While the British, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Belgians all enforced and exploited slavery, only the United States and Brazil – of today’s industrialized nations – did so on their own land. This odiousness, much more than a past blemish, actively plagues this land.
Latino and Asian immigrants, he writes, have had better success than Blacks at integrating into American society. Why? While these immigrants have suffered deep exclusions, neither group was institutionally enslaved. As one of many examples to illustrate racism’s long reach, he states that the intergenerational transfer of wealth – 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s “get a $20,000 loan from your parents” – is essentially non-existent for Black families in this country.
America, he writes, is exceptional because it allowed and promoted equality for many. Yet, America’s persistent and centuries-long exclusions towards Blacks and other minorities nullifies foundational American credos such as “all are created equal” and “liberty and justice for all.” Additionally, American economic inequality, currently on a forty-year run, is making America like the countries of yesterday’s Europe and like many other countries today where elites enjoy and cultivate favor at the expense of the lower and middle classes.
Castañeda also dives deep into explanations on America’s current political gridlock, arguing that our political system – its original participants a relatively small group of white landowners – is incompatible with today’s entrenched inequality and surging heterogeneity of the voting populace.
An admirer, participant in and benefactor of the American experiment, Castañeda bemoans the dulling of America’s exceptional shine. No longer favoring the middle class, America’s inequalities make her like so many other countries in the world. She will need, he writes, to forge ahead as the other industrialized countries have done by offering additional social safety nets. The coronavirus’s far-reaching effects upon America’s public health and economy – exacerbated by Trump’s inept and vacant leadership – have verified Castañeda’s views which received their final edits months before Trump claimed, in February, that the virus would simply “disappear.”
August 2, 2025
First of nothing of the following all:
Dear Goodreabrairians (Gottliebearians, as if you care about such things), if it doesn't take too much of your godly (Uranian) lifeforce - cut "AA" at least in half, if only to save the economy of Scrump's Era Mexican alphabet; otherwise any rational sense in tilda's dislocation over the nuclear "n" turns into el Mañana.
..
Now, statistics of references, or Officially Published Index review:
Hannah Arendt (1), James Baldwin (2), Jean Baudrillard (2), Justin Bieber (1), Osama Bin Laden (1), Black Panthers (1), Bertolt Brecht (2), California (18), Caracalla (1), China (45), Civil War (12), Heresome Climate Change (11), Sacha Baron Cohen (1), Cold War (7), Constitution of the United States (19), Cuba (13), More Democratic Party (20), Jacques Derrida (1), William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1), Marcel Duchamps (1), Pablo Escobar (1), Less European Union (25), Evangelical Protestants (10), Fentanyl Epidemic (4), Florida (6), France (37), Germany (19), Spontaneously Great Britain (31), Guatemala (4), Heroin (7), the Holocaust (3 and no deniers this time), Huawei (2), Hungary (1), Incas (1), Indonesia (7), Iran (7), Iraq (10), Islam (see "Muslims"), Italy (10), Japan (25), Frida Kahlo (1), Kenya (1), Claude Levi-Strauss (2), Libya (1), Karl Marx (4, even Engelsless), McDonald's (3, Marx won!), Mexico (51), Mormons (3), Muslims (see "Islam", but jokes aside - 8), Набоков (2), Netherlands (5), New Zealand (2), Nicaragua (3), Barack Obama (18 + one for a wife), Panama (4), Nancy Pelocy (1), Poland (4), Portugal (6), Richard Pryor (1), Некий Путин (1), Ronald Reagan (14 + three for a wife), Republican Party (11), Rock-n-roll (4), Rwanda (1), Evadame Samesex Marriage (4), Saudi Arabia (3), Jean-Paul Sartre (3), Saturday Night Live (3), Советы (17), Александр Солженицын (1), Syria (6), Texas (16), Alexis de Tocqueville (11), Donald Trump (44:11 for not saying 'a word' about 'a wife'), Turkey the Featherless (4), Mark Twain (8), Україна (1), Uruguay (3), Venezuela (3), Virgin of Guadalupe (1), Max Weber (4), [no more, no less] Women (8), Mark Zuckerberg (3)
- Miss Dare dares to remind every-and-no-one about title of the Opus Magnum Under Review, which is "America through Foreign Ice..Highs..Flies..Tighs?"
333 words were written even before they were counted thrice - that's a spirit, gal!
Next, one of the advantages of software readers, in particular: in the corner of screen one can find percentage of contents of the cover chosen be revieweress, numbers which can be directly attributed to literary work. In case of the apples and oranges of comrade Castañeda' sleepless (Crimson as a King) nights, the aforementioned indicator is entirely simple in his arithmetic form, but also makes no demands for additional explanations - 58,8%; thus 41,2% are notes [without extra noteworthy thoughtfulness which would be certainly excessive] and previously lazily analyzed Milky Way Index. Miss Dare dares not to raise not just her voice - she is also forced to downcast own eyes, kneel own palms in the face of the USUS (Undisputable Statistics of the United States), indeed - how monstrous is Miss Dare's position in a society too inclined to compromise!
First thing fourth, a word by a comrade:
"The over-arching theme of these (58,8%) pages consists in the simple thought that most (41,2%) of what could be said about the United States..can be boiled to one distinguishing feature: a middle-class society..that allowed and encouraged equality for many, exclusion for the rest"
- in a mind-blowing delight of such context Miss Dare, as an Fervidly Ardent Follower, can't help asking herself what drove the author, in his midclascentricity, to decision of forgetting mention [not one of a kind though] a catastrophically unique phenomenon of American Creedream - the Church of Scientology? Snares for Solomonic Beau Monde and Confucian Nouveau Riche set [not without talent and genealogical predisposition to setting] by the middle class meddlers in the vain hope of overcoming own tendency of turning into werebromides - how could they be ignored during the Intelligent Design rehearsal and the Great Hunt through Foreign Rye?
Of course, the discovery and injection (into the text) of "the two of most salient traits of misnamed American national character: [the] absence of a sense of history and [an] extraordinary sense of humour", - could well have served rehabilitation of the author in the Eyes of Jehovah's Witnesses; if at least for 35,2% of written in "America through.." Esteemed Former Minister of Foreign Affairs had tried to present those experienced Affairs in a humorous tone, indicative of the nation which put him in the Ministry - much more could have been accomplished. Out of false modesty, comrade Castañeda refrained from even the briefest comparison (installation) of his personal (historical and communal) humorous gifts with those of Chriswill Rocksmith - thus no contrast is experienced by us, riews and rears, for extraordinariness of American humour is timely balanced by the Egyptian pantheon of Russian-language variety satire.
'The Issue' is probably in the literary agency, thoughtless, bat-eyed use of collocations and titles as well as exploitation of professional careers of authors. View "through Foreign Eyes" does not promise anything shocking (blue!) - yet the thing it turns to be able to amaze with is statistics of National American Mass Dream Incarceration and shamefully rareripe liberal Second Amendment.
Nonetheless, if one wants to learn the Foreign Eyes Watching America by following the example of studying Japanese military discipline from Clint Eastwood movies - one may well find in such a 'mural' of Mexican Political Academicism even that very Tara - where one can always escape with all the [inhumanly] long ear fiddlesticks accumulated over the centuries of Saturday Nights.
Dear Goodreabrairians (Gottliebearians, as if you care about such things), if it doesn't take too much of your godly (Uranian) lifeforce - cut "AA" at least in half, if only to save the economy of Scrump's Era Mexican alphabet; otherwise any rational sense in tilda's dislocation over the nuclear "n" turns into el Mañana.
..
Now, statistics of references, or Officially Published Index review:
Hannah Arendt (1), James Baldwin (2), Jean Baudrillard (2), Justin Bieber (1), Osama Bin Laden (1), Black Panthers (1), Bertolt Brecht (2), California (18), Caracalla (1), China (45), Civil War (12), Heresome Climate Change (11), Sacha Baron Cohen (1), Cold War (7), Constitution of the United States (19), Cuba (13), More Democratic Party (20), Jacques Derrida (1), William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1), Marcel Duchamps (1), Pablo Escobar (1), Less European Union (25), Evangelical Protestants (10), Fentanyl Epidemic (4), Florida (6), France (37), Germany (19), Spontaneously Great Britain (31), Guatemala (4), Heroin (7), the Holocaust (3 and no deniers this time), Huawei (2), Hungary (1), Incas (1), Indonesia (7), Iran (7), Iraq (10), Islam (see "Muslims"), Italy (10), Japan (25), Frida Kahlo (1), Kenya (1), Claude Levi-Strauss (2), Libya (1), Karl Marx (4, even Engelsless), McDonald's (3, Marx won!), Mexico (51), Mormons (3), Muslims (see "Islam", but jokes aside - 8), Набоков (2), Netherlands (5), New Zealand (2), Nicaragua (3), Barack Obama (18 + one for a wife), Panama (4), Nancy Pelocy (1), Poland (4), Portugal (6), Richard Pryor (1), Некий Путин (1), Ronald Reagan (14 + three for a wife), Republican Party (11), Rock-n-roll (4), Rwanda (1), Evadame Samesex Marriage (4), Saudi Arabia (3), Jean-Paul Sartre (3), Saturday Night Live (3), Советы (17), Александр Солженицын (1), Syria (6), Texas (16), Alexis de Tocqueville (11), Donald Trump (44:11 for not saying 'a word' about 'a wife'), Turkey the Featherless (4), Mark Twain (8), Україна (1), Uruguay (3), Venezuela (3), Virgin of Guadalupe (1), Max Weber (4), [no more, no less] Women (8), Mark Zuckerberg (3)
- Miss Dare dares to remind every-and-no-one about title of the Opus Magnum Under Review, which is "America through Foreign Ice..Highs..Flies..Tighs?"
333 words were written even before they were counted thrice - that's a spirit, gal!
Next, one of the advantages of software readers, in particular: in the corner of screen one can find percentage of contents of the cover chosen be revieweress, numbers which can be directly attributed to literary work. In case of the apples and oranges of comrade Castañeda' sleepless (Crimson as a King) nights, the aforementioned indicator is entirely simple in his arithmetic form, but also makes no demands for additional explanations - 58,8%; thus 41,2% are notes [without extra noteworthy thoughtfulness which would be certainly excessive] and previously lazily analyzed Milky Way Index. Miss Dare dares not to raise not just her voice - she is also forced to downcast own eyes, kneel own palms in the face of the USUS (Undisputable Statistics of the United States), indeed - how monstrous is Miss Dare's position in a society too inclined to compromise!
First thing fourth, a word by a comrade:
"The over-arching theme of these (58,8%) pages consists in the simple thought that most (41,2%) of what could be said about the United States..can be boiled to one distinguishing feature: a middle-class society..that allowed and encouraged equality for many, exclusion for the rest"
- in a mind-blowing delight of such context Miss Dare, as an Fervidly Ardent Follower, can't help asking herself what drove the author, in his midclascentricity, to decision of forgetting mention [not one of a kind though] a catastrophically unique phenomenon of American Creedream - the Church of Scientology? Snares for Solomonic Beau Monde and Confucian Nouveau Riche set [not without talent and genealogical predisposition to setting] by the middle class meddlers in the vain hope of overcoming own tendency of turning into werebromides - how could they be ignored during the Intelligent Design rehearsal and the Great Hunt through Foreign Rye?
Of course, the discovery and injection (into the text) of "the two of most salient traits of misnamed American national character: [the] absence of a sense of history and [an] extraordinary sense of humour", - could well have served rehabilitation of the author in the Eyes of Jehovah's Witnesses; if at least for 35,2% of written in "America through.." Esteemed Former Minister of Foreign Affairs had tried to present those experienced Affairs in a humorous tone, indicative of the nation which put him in the Ministry - much more could have been accomplished. Out of false modesty, comrade Castañeda refrained from even the briefest comparison (installation) of his personal (historical and communal) humorous gifts with those of Chriswill Rocksmith - thus no contrast is experienced by us, riews and rears, for extraordinariness of American humour is timely balanced by the Egyptian pantheon of Russian-language variety satire.
'The Issue' is probably in the literary agency, thoughtless, bat-eyed use of collocations and titles as well as exploitation of professional careers of authors. View "through Foreign Eyes" does not promise anything shocking (blue!) - yet the thing it turns to be able to amaze with is statistics of National American Mass Dream Incarceration and shamefully rareripe liberal Second Amendment.
Nonetheless, if one wants to learn the Foreign Eyes Watching America by following the example of studying Japanese military discipline from Clint Eastwood movies - one may well find in such a 'mural' of Mexican Political Academicism even that very Tara - where one can always escape with all the [inhumanly] long ear fiddlesticks accumulated over the centuries of Saturday Nights.
January 28, 2021
Jorge Castañeda has a unique perspective on reality, especially in the political and international spheres. Despite the culture and knowledge that he has, he continues to speak in a simple and sensible way, showing that he is a teacher and a very good one.
In America Through Foreign Eyes, Castañeda takes a tour of the most important aspects that make the United States the country that it is today, from its independence, economy, art, and politics, to the virtually inexplicable and unintelligible issues of the American culture. Throughout the book, he asks the question if America really is an exceptional country or if they just want to convince themselves of this.
It takes a foreigner close enough to the United States to be able to explain it and delve into it historically and culturally. But there is also a need for a foreigner who can see this nation with independent and critical eyes. Castañeda is both. With this book, it is very clear what it is to admire of the USA (which is a lot), but also everything that is to be taken with a grain of salt.
——
Jorge Castañeda tiene una perspectiva única de la realidad, especialmente en los ámbitos político e internacional. A pesar de la cultura y conocimiento que tiene, sigue hablando de una manera sencilla y sensata, demostrando que es un profesor y uno muy bueno.
En America Through Foreign Eyes, Castañeda da un recorrido por los aspectos más importantes que hacen de Estados Unidos el país que es, desde su independencia, economía, arte y política hasta cuestiones prácticamente inexplicables e inentendibles de la cultura estadounidense. A lo largo del libro, pregunta si realmente América es un país excepcional o simplemente se quiere convencer a sí mismo de esto.
Hace falta un extranjero lo suficientemente cercano a Estados Unidos para poder explicarlo y profundizar en él de manera histórica y cultural. Pero también hace falta un extranjero que pueda ver con ojos independientes y críticos a esta nación. Con este libro, queda muy claro qué es lo que hay que admirar a USA (que es mucho), pero también todo lo que hay que tomar con precaución.
In America Through Foreign Eyes, Castañeda takes a tour of the most important aspects that make the United States the country that it is today, from its independence, economy, art, and politics, to the virtually inexplicable and unintelligible issues of the American culture. Throughout the book, he asks the question if America really is an exceptional country or if they just want to convince themselves of this.
It takes a foreigner close enough to the United States to be able to explain it and delve into it historically and culturally. But there is also a need for a foreigner who can see this nation with independent and critical eyes. Castañeda is both. With this book, it is very clear what it is to admire of the USA (which is a lot), but also everything that is to be taken with a grain of salt.
——
Jorge Castañeda tiene una perspectiva única de la realidad, especialmente en los ámbitos político e internacional. A pesar de la cultura y conocimiento que tiene, sigue hablando de una manera sencilla y sensata, demostrando que es un profesor y uno muy bueno.
En America Through Foreign Eyes, Castañeda da un recorrido por los aspectos más importantes que hacen de Estados Unidos el país que es, desde su independencia, economía, arte y política hasta cuestiones prácticamente inexplicables e inentendibles de la cultura estadounidense. A lo largo del libro, pregunta si realmente América es un país excepcional o simplemente se quiere convencer a sí mismo de esto.
Hace falta un extranjero lo suficientemente cercano a Estados Unidos para poder explicarlo y profundizar en él de manera histórica y cultural. Pero también hace falta un extranjero que pueda ver con ojos independientes y críticos a esta nación. Con este libro, queda muy claro qué es lo que hay que admirar a USA (que es mucho), pero también todo lo que hay que tomar con precaución.
October 29, 2022
I don't know if I was the right audience for this.
America through Foreign Eyes is a collection of chapters examining multiple aspects of American society and our economy, like income inequality, racism, school shootings, American exceptionalism, how we view our history and our scattered sense of self. When I picked this book up, I was expecting more personal essays about Castañeda's relationship with American-ness or some of his personal experiences, but instead, it read more like a survey of issues you would study in your first year or two of undergrad in a liberal arts course. It covers a lot of ground that would be familiar to anyone who regularly reads books, news articles or other materials that examine this country's problems and complexities.
It wasn't a bad book, I just came away from it wondering exactly who it was supposed to be for. It can be dense reading at times, so it feels like a heavier nonfiction book than a casual reader might pick up. But, I doubt there are many people who like heavy nonfiction books who haven't read a lot of the source material referenced here or other materials that recount a lot of the same information, at greater depth. My favorite chapter was the one that covered the intersection between Americans' sense of history and our humor, which was full of new insights. Everything else felt like a retread (at least to me).
If you've never stopped to learn more about America through a critical lens, this book would likely be a very eye-opening and interesting read. But if you've already read books like The New Jim Crow, Caste, Just Mercy and others in that vein, you likely will not find much new ground here.
(And no, I swear I am not an insufferable jerk)
America through Foreign Eyes is a collection of chapters examining multiple aspects of American society and our economy, like income inequality, racism, school shootings, American exceptionalism, how we view our history and our scattered sense of self. When I picked this book up, I was expecting more personal essays about Castañeda's relationship with American-ness or some of his personal experiences, but instead, it read more like a survey of issues you would study in your first year or two of undergrad in a liberal arts course. It covers a lot of ground that would be familiar to anyone who regularly reads books, news articles or other materials that examine this country's problems and complexities.
It wasn't a bad book, I just came away from it wondering exactly who it was supposed to be for. It can be dense reading at times, so it feels like a heavier nonfiction book than a casual reader might pick up. But, I doubt there are many people who like heavy nonfiction books who haven't read a lot of the source material referenced here or other materials that recount a lot of the same information, at greater depth. My favorite chapter was the one that covered the intersection between Americans' sense of history and our humor, which was full of new insights. Everything else felt like a retread (at least to me).
If you've never stopped to learn more about America through a critical lens, this book would likely be a very eye-opening and interesting read. But if you've already read books like The New Jim Crow, Caste, Just Mercy and others in that vein, you likely will not find much new ground here.
(And no, I swear I am not an insufferable jerk)
August 9, 2020
I read Jorge Castañeda's America through Foreign Eyes, and since I was asked to review it, I will keep this brief and let you click on that when it's ready for clicking. Castañeda knows the U.S. very well, and is in a good position to tell us something about ourselves. And he clearly likes the U.S. a lot.
The one point that the average American would do well to take from this book is the dangerous absurdity of exceptionalism. We think we're exceptional when we're not, often creating our beliefs by conveniently leaving out key facts. I mean, don't talk about democracy and equality unless you explicitly say you mean only whites. Castañeda, like so many others, is frustrated by these beliefs and sees them as an obstacle to Americans themselves.
I will also say that Castañeda is optimistic about how we can change. He often seemed more optimistic than me. So I hope the outsider view is getting something I am missing.
From http://weeksnotice.blogspot.com/2020/...
The one point that the average American would do well to take from this book is the dangerous absurdity of exceptionalism. We think we're exceptional when we're not, often creating our beliefs by conveniently leaving out key facts. I mean, don't talk about democracy and equality unless you explicitly say you mean only whites. Castañeda, like so many others, is frustrated by these beliefs and sees them as an obstacle to Americans themselves.
I will also say that Castañeda is optimistic about how we can change. He often seemed more optimistic than me. So I hope the outsider view is getting something I am missing.
From http://weeksnotice.blogspot.com/2020/...
June 5, 2021
This work attempts to take its place among the likes of Tocqueville and others who try to comment on the US from a "foreign" perspective. Castaneda is foreign-born, but lived most of his life in America. Still, he makes the attempt to decipher America for the outside world, or how an outsider could look upon America. He touches on many of the key issues driving American discourse and actions. He does take a "liberal" approach to the issues. This was written prior to the 2020 elections, so it would be interesting to see what he might think of the situation now.
While it has its insights and does provide some good history, this work is not really going to stand out among other literature of the same genre. Don't figure this work to supplant Tocqueville. The audience is mixed. Does it mean to explain America to the outsider, or explain to an American what one outsider thinks other outsiders think? Doesn't completely answer that challenge. Not a bad read, but probably not one to be dwelt upon after reading.
While it has its insights and does provide some good history, this work is not really going to stand out among other literature of the same genre. Don't figure this work to supplant Tocqueville. The audience is mixed. Does it mean to explain America to the outsider, or explain to an American what one outsider thinks other outsiders think? Doesn't completely answer that challenge. Not a bad read, but probably not one to be dwelt upon after reading.
January 5, 2022
This is a crude explainer on US culture for a foreign audience that's been translated into English and marketed as something different. Expect a lot of high school history lessons about how unequal America is, plus one-sentence summations of entire decades and pages of totalizing quotes by nutty French leftists who went to a couple cities as tourists a half-century ago.
August 5, 2020
It's an academic book
I like how Jorge Castaneda writes, he provides tons of information on each book. But in this it was too much details,instead his point of view.
I like how Jorge Castaneda writes, he provides tons of information on each book. But in this it was too much details,instead his point of view.
Read
September 8, 2020read for class
January 2, 2021
Insightful perspective into how foreigners view the US.
February 1, 2021
Well done, and depressing. Who are we, and how'd we get here?!? Ugh.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews