By Russell Berman, Hoover Institution Press, March 2004

Our tarnished image in Europe: Why has it become so pervasive?

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.

In this revealing look at the deep divide that has emerged, Russell A. 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 to be a useful ideology for the definition of a new European identity. He examines this emerging identity and shows how it has led Europeans to a position hostile to any "regime change" by the United States—no matter how bad the regime may be—whether in Serbia, Afghanistan, or Iraq.

Russell A. Berman, the Walter A. Haas Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University, is a senior fellow, by courtesy, at the Hoover Institution

Read the Book Online (Divided PDFs)

Berman 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. He explains how anti-Americanism operates like an obsessive prejudice and stereotype, impervious to rational arguments or factual proof, and shows how the negative response to U.S. policies can be traced to a larger, more deeply rooted movement against globalization. Anti-Americanism in Western Europe is not just a friendly disagreement, it is a widening chasm. This book makes a major contribution to understanding this important ideological challenge.

Book Contents (PDFs):

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: The German Perception of the United States since September 11 and the European Context
• Chapter 2: Not Just a Friendly Disagreement: Anti-Americanism as Obsession
• Chapter 3: Democratic War, Repressive Peace: On Really Existing Anti-Americanism
• Chapter 4: Saddam as Hitler
• Chapter 5: Anti-Americanism and the Movement against Globalization
• Bibliography
• Index

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