The History of Anti-Americanism

Anti-Americanism has a history. That is something I am apt to forget. I often mistakenly believe that America has always been seen as a beacon for the blah-blah-blah. Nothing could be further from the truth. Much of the European interaction with America has been with a shadow America, or rather a white screen on which Europeans project their own emotions and, often enough, insecurities. For examples, see Charles Dicken's account of his travels in America, and Frances Trollope's pitiless take upon the United States. And they just found Americans had poor manners. Others are apt to find all sorts of things they don't like in Europe here in America, writ large.

Someone who knows a lot more about this than I is James W. Ceasar, Professor of Political Thought at the University of Virginia. His brilliant article "A genealogy of anti-Americanism" is online at The Public Interest website. It is a must read, and I plan to make some more comments on it tomorrow.