Andrei S. Markovits

Uncouth Nation (eBook, ePUB)

Why Europe Dislikes America

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

No survey can capture the breadth and depth of the anti-Americanism that has swept Europe in recent years. From ultraconservative Bavarian grandmothers to thirty-year-old socialist activists in Greece, from globalization opponents to corporate executives--Europeans are joining in an ever louder chorus of disdain for America. For the first time, anti-Americanism has become a European lingua franca.

In this sweeping and provocative look at the history of European aversion to America, Andrei Markovits argues that understanding the ubiquity of anti-Americanism since September 11, 2001, requires an appreciation of such sentiments among European elites going back at least to July 4, 1776.

While George W. Bush's policies have catapulted anti-Americanism into overdrive, particularly in Western Europe, Markovits argues that this loathing has long been driven not by what America does, but by what it is. Focusing on seven Western European countries big and small, he shows how antipathies toward things American embrace aspects of everyday life--such as sports, language, work, education, media, health, and law--that remain far from the purview of the Bush administration's policies. Aggravating Europeans' antipathies toward America is their alleged helplessness in the face of an Americanization that they view as inexorably befalling them.

More troubling, Markovits argues, is that this anti-Americanism has cultivated a new strain of anti-Semitism. Above all, he shows that while Europeans are far apart in terms of their everyday lives and shared experiences, their not being American provides them with a powerful common identity--one that elites have already begun to harness in their quest to construct a unified Europe to rival America.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Princeton University Press
• Seitenzahl: 304
• Erscheinungstermin: 10. Januar 2009
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781400827299
• Artikelnr.: 38280272

Autorenporträt

Andrei S. Markovits, born in October 1948 in the West Romanian city of Timisoara as the only child of a Hungarian-speaking middle-class Jewish couple, is the Karl W. Deutsch Collegiate Professor of Comparative Politics and German Studies and an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Raised in Vienna and New York City, Markovits attended Columbia University from which he received five degrees. His academic career led him to holding positions on the faculties of Wesleyan University, Boston University, and the University of California at Santa Cruz before assuming his current professorships at the University of Michigan in 1999. In addition, Markovits was a long-time member of the Center for European Studies at Harvard University where he was also a Visiting Professor of Social Studies in 2002-2003. Markovits held guest professorships at universities in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Israel. He has been awarded many fellowships and was a member of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences of Stanford University and the Institute for Advanced Study Berlin (Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin). His many books, articles, and reviews have appeared in fifteen languages. Markovits' published scholarship ranges from European social democracy and labor unions to European anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism; from the politics of scandal to that of the Green movement and party in Germany. His latest work has been primarily focused on the consumption of sports (i.e., the fans as opposed to the athletes) in North America and Europe, as well as dog rescue in the ever-changing context of human-animal relations. Markovits was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Leuphana University in Lueneburg, Germany. Additonally, the President of the Federal Republic of Germany bestowed on Markovits the Cross of the Order of Merit, First Class, one of the highest honors awarded by Germany to Germans and foreigners alike. A lover of all music, Markovits has been particularly enamored with the work of Mozart, Beethoven, Dvorak, and the Grateful Dead, whom he followed on many a tour on the East Coast between 1969 and Jerry Garcia's tragic and untimely death in 1995. A devoted lover of golden retrievers over many years, Markovits and his wife, Kiki, live with their beloved golden Emma in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Markovits recently published his memoir under the title THE PASSPORT AS HOME: COMFORT IN ROOTLESSNESS. (Budapest and Vienna: The Central European University Press, 2021). The book has also appeared in a German and Romanian translation!