Our Tarnished Image in Europe: The Fault of U.S. policies or an Indicator of European Culture?

Since September 11, 2001, the attitudes of Europeans toward the United States have grown increasingly more negative. For many in Europe, the terrorist attack on New York City was seen as evidence of how American behavior elicits hostility—and how it would be up to Americans to repent and change their ways. Yet, as this book argues, the deep cultural roots of European anti-Americanism predate contemporary partisan concerns. In this revealing look at the deep divide that has emerged, Russell Berman explores the various dimensions of contemporary European anti-Americanism. The author shows how, as the process of post-cold war European unification has progressed, anti-Americanism has proven a useful ideology for the definition of a new European identity. He examines this emerging identity and shows how it has led to a position hostile to any "regime change" by the United States—no matter how bad the regime may be. And he details the elements—some cultural, some simply irrational—of this disturbing movement and tells why it is likely to remain a feature of relations between the United States and Europe for the foreseeable future. Anti-Americanism in Western Europe is not just a friendly disagreement, but a widening chasm. This book makes a major contribution to understanding this important ideological challenge. Russell A. Berman, the Walter A. Haas Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University, is a senior fellow, by courtesy, at the Hoover Institution.

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Copyright © 2008 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Introduction to the Hoover Classics Edition
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• The German Perception of the United States since September 11 and the European Context
• Not Just a Friendly Disagreement: Anti-Americanism as Obsession
• Democratic War, Repressive Peace: On Really Existing Anti-Americanism
• Saddam as Hitler
• Anti-Americanism and the Movement against Globalization
• Bibliography
• Index