Rethinking Anti-Americanism: The History of an Exceptional Concept in American Foreign Relations
Cambridge University Press, 11/1/2012
EAN 9780521683425, ISBN10: 0521683424
Paperback, 374 pages, 23.4 x 15.6 x 2.1 cm
Language: English
'Anti-Americanism' is an unusual expression; although stereotypes and hostility exist toward every nation, we do not hear of 'anti-Italianism' or 'anti-Brazilianism'. Only Americans have elevated such sentiment to the level of a world view, an explanatory factor so significant as to merit a name - an 'ism' - usually reserved for comprehensive ideological systems or ingrained prejudice. This book challenges the scholarly consensus that blames criticism of the United States on foreigners' irrational resistance to democracy and modernity. Tracing 200 years of the concept of anti-Americanism, this book argues that it has constricted political discourse about social reform and US foreign policy, from the War of 1812 and the Mexican War to the Cold War, from Guatemala and Vietnam to Iraq. Research in nine countries in five languages, with attention to diplomacy, culture, migration and the circulation of ideas, shows that the myth of anti-Americanism has often damaged the national interest.
1. Introduction
the myth of anti-Americanism
2. History of a concept
3. Americanism and anti-Americanism
4. The specter haunting Europe
anti-Americanism and the Cold War
5. Bad neighborhood
anti-Americanism and Latin America
6. Myth and consequences
de Gaulle, anti-Americanism, and Vietnam
7. Anti-Americanism in the age of protest
8. Epilogue
the anti-American century?