Understanding Anti-Americanism: Its Orgins and Impact at Home and Abroad

by Paul Hollander (Editor)

Original reports and observations that analyze the causes and impact of anti-Americanism in areas throughout the world. It distinguishes between rational and specific critiques of American foreign policy and American society on the one hand, and that brand of hostile predisposition that blames the United States for a wide variety of grievances and frustrations that are at best tangentially related to its policies, institutions, or way of life.
Introduction by Paul Hollander

Genres: Politics

380 pages, Paperback

First published January 25, 2004

About the author

American political sociologist, communist-studies scholar, and non-fiction author. He is known for his criticisms of communism and left-wing politics in general. Born in 1932 in Hungary, he fled to the West after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was bloodily put down by Soviet forces.
Hollander earned a Ph.D in Sociology from Princeton University, 1963 and a B.A. from the London School of Economics, 1959. He was Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a Center Associate of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. He was a member of the advisory council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.

Reviews

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

overall, pretty disappointing. way too many of the essays were written by reflexively pro-american right-wing types, so that basically their tone was precisely the mirror image of what they were criticising (reflexively anti-american left-wing types). thankfully, they were erudite and articulate, so it was more like a William F. Buckley tone than some Ann Coulter piece of shit, but still, it was often just one person's biased complaints about another group's biased complaints. lots of ad hominem argument, and far too little evidence.

that said, some of the essays were pretty informative. the best on foreign anti-americanism were the ones on Nicaragua, Cuba, Latin America generally, and the middle east. what made these ones better was that they gave detailed historical information about the events that are always brought up to justify anti-americanism in those countries (e.g. the american soldier of fortune William Walker and his adventure in Nicaragua). well, ok, i enjoyed the one on France, too, because it's just always so fun how easy it is to make these massive lists of how the French have failed so miserably, so often, and yet they somehow retain this cultural sneer of superiority.

the essays on Britain, Germany, and Russia were pretty boring.

the crop of essays on why many americans seem to hate america was pretty weak. the only one i enjoyed was by Adam Garfinkle about "peace movements and the adversary culture".

you can't just say "they never give any strong evidence" and "prove" this by giving snippets of idiotic comments from hollywood buffoons or other left-wing morons, then engage in head-shaking armchair psychology, as many of the writers do. the people who dedicate their lives to anti-americanism SURELY are convinced that there are tons of reasons for believing that america is a menace, so it's silly to say they have no arguments. much better would be to present your opponent's arguments in the strongest possible form and then show why they are wrong.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book for one of my MBA classes. The book is a collection of essays that discuss reasons why people both outside and inside the United states have against this country. I found the essays focused on the other countries to be useful in helping to understand that anti-Americanism has been around for a long time. The last section dealing with domestic anti-Americanism was interesting as well.