From Publishers Weekly
In 1972, Revel shocked the world with his best-selling book, Without Marx or Jesus, in which he defended America against global denunciation. Thirty years later, Revel is back with the same purpose. His latest book, a bestseller in France, comes at a crucial time. It seeks to explain the root cause of the world's and particularly Europe's obsession with hating America. He does not pretend that America is perfect. But he argues that the daily denunciations exceed the bounds of reasonable criticism. Furthermore, Revel says, European critics are quick to point fingers when they should be looking in the mirror. Rather than mock America's 2000 presidential election, he notes, Europeans should have been examining their own abysmally run European Union. He attributes such inconsistencies to Europeans' desperate desire to "project our faults onto America so as to absolve ourselves." Revel further finds fault with the antiglobalization movement. Though the movement claims to oppose inequality and poverty in underdeveloped countries, its true anathema is liberal capitalism, whose chief representative is the United States. The barrage of attacks will make it impossible for the United States to confer with European officials or take any criticism seriously. It is in Europe's interest, Revel says, to put aside its envy and consider a more constructive relationship with the United States. As a French citizen, the author laments the sorry state of his home country; he believes that careful consideration of American principles will strengthen Europe. Revel writes with a style at once informative and incisive. He possesses a sarcastic wit that is undoubtedly as irritating to his critics as it is endearing to his supporters.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
After the 9/11 attack on the United States, the brief moment of sympathy for America soon began giving way to blame. In France and other quarters of Europe, and elsewhere in the world, it was said that the Americans had brought this violence upon themselves. The U.S. was a "cowboy" nation unwilling to abide by the will of the United Nations and other multilateral institutions, and bent on pursuing its objectives at any cost. It was the "hyperpower" whose corporations manipulated world markets and whose riches are acquired at the price of Third World impoverishment. No wonder it had been attacked!
Angered by the assault against a nation he knows and admires, the distinguished French intellectual Jean-Francois Revel has come to America's defense in "Anti-Americanism," a biting and erudite book that (paradoxically, given his country's specially vehement attacks on the U.S. and its policies) spent several weeks late last year on top of France's best-seller list.
Revel believes that what he calls the "anti-American obsession" is based on a willful disregard of the most obvious facts of American political and social life, its economic freedom and democratic traditions. He sees much anti-Americanism simply as anti-capitalism in disguise on the part of those--in Europe and the rest of the world--who are still committed to doctrines that are at heart illiberal and even totalitarian. In probing the origins of the notion that America is the source of all evil--imperialistic, greedy and ruthlessly competitive--he shows how these charges ultimately stem from weakness and envy on the part of those who make them and are a neurotic effort to find an easy explanation for Europe's own loss of status in the postwar era. As far as America's "unilateralism" is concerned, Revel asserts that the U.S. is forced to act alone because Europe has repeatedly failed to act in the cause of collective security. As far as America's sins of "globalization" are concerned, Revel shows that the developing countries of the world want more, not less access to rich markets and corporate investment.
Jean-Francois Revel explores the strengths of America and exposes the agendas of the anti-Americans in his own country, in Europe and around the world. At a time when it seems that much of the world is marching against America, Revel's clearheaded analysis of the protestors' motives shows what they're really marching for and what the world will lose if their anti-Americanism should ever take hold.
