Campaign for the American Reader: Pg. 69: "Uncouth Nation"

Andrei S. Markovits is the Karl W. Deutsch Collegiate Professor of Comparative Politics and German Studies at the University of Michigan, and the author of Uncouth Nation: Why Europe Dislikes America.

I asked him to put the book to the "page 69 test"; here is his response:

Page 69 of my book Uncouth Nation: Why Europe Dislikes America begins with the final paragraph of my historical presentation of German intellectuals' disdain for the United States before World War II. It also features how this disdain, so essential to the discourse of the European Right for two centuries, began to engulf the European Left after the Bolshevik Revolution. In particular, I describe how the great Bertolt Brecht mutated already in the 1920s from an admirer of things American to a harsh critic. In his comparing the United States with the Soviet Union, Brecht said: "The mistakes of the Russians are the mistakes of friends, the mistakes of the Americans are the mistakes of enemies."

The bottom half of my page 69 begins a presentation of anti-Americanism's history in Britain. While quite different from its manifestations on the Continent where anti-Americanism has often been coupled with an antipathy for all things Anglo as well -- American and British being perceived as virtually interchangeable -- it nevertheless features very similar tropes of resentment so familiar to Continental discourse.

Many thanks to Andy for the input.

Read an essay adapted from the book, and read the introduction to Uncouth Nation.

Among the praise for Uncouth Nation:

In Uncouth Nation, Andrei Markovits provides deep insights into anti-Americanism in Europe today and delves into many of the facets that make the American-European relationship so unique. This book should be read and discussed!"
--Joschka Fischer, former Foreign Minister of Germany, and Professor, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University

"Anti-Americanism is as old as the Republic--a historical constant, which is only remotely related to specific American behavior. So what is new? Andrei Markovits has delivered the best answer yet, ranging across an astounding wealth of material from politics and culture. Uncouth Nation is a rare academic treat. Rigorous and analytical, the book is also a pleasure to read as it penetrates a critical issue of our time."
--Josef Joffe, Publisher and Editor of Die Zeit, and Fellow of the Hoover Institution, Stanford University

"Andrei Markovits does three things in this excellent book: he provides an account of the historical and contemporary forms of European anti-Americanism (and of its close relative, anti-Semitism); he analyzes the roots and causes of this phenomenon; and, best of all, he gives us a running critique of the frequent silliness and malice of the anti-Americans and of their role in fashioning a certain kind, which is not the best possible kind, of pan-European politics."
--Michael Walzer, Institute for Advanced Study

Read more reviews.

Jeffrey Herf recently wrote:

[A]s Andrei Markovits, one of our leading scholars European politics and society argues in his important new book, Uncouth Nation: Why Europe Dislikes America, we know that there are sources of anti-Americanism that originate in disdain or even hatred for what the United States is rather than what a particular administration does and that will lead to opposition to American policies even when they are at one with traditions of enlightenment and liberty.

Markovits' many other books and publications include Offside: Soccer and American