ABOUT THIS BOOK

This book interrogates the nature of anti-Americanism today and over the last century. It asks several questions: How do we define the phenomenon from different perspectives: political, social, and cultural? What are the historical sources and turning points of anti-Americanism in Europe and elsewhere? What are its links with anti-Semitic sentiment? Has anti-Americanism been beneficial or self-destructive to its “believers”? Finally, how has the United States responded and why? The authors, scholars from a multitude of countries, tackle the potential political consequences of anti-Americanism in Eastern and Central Europe, the region that has been perceived as strongly pro-American.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Ivan Krastev is Chairman of the Board of the Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia and research director of the Politics of Anti-Americanism project of the Central European University in Budapest. He has published widely on post-Socialist transition, corruption and politics of anti-Americanism in Central and Eastern Europe.

Alan McPherson is Associate Professor of History at Howard University in Washington, D.C. He is the author of the prize-winning Yankee No! Anti-Americanism in U.S.–Latin American Relations (Harvard, 2003), and of Intimate Ties, Bitter Struggles: The United States and Latin America since 1945 (Potomac, 2006).

REVIEWS

"The essays that Ivan Krastev and Alan McPherson have gathered together in this little book represent a distinctive contribution to the burgeoning literature on ‘anti-Americanism.’ They cover a remarkable amount of ground, from South-East Asia to Central Europe, and offer many original insights into the origins and nature of contemporary anti-American sentiment. Anyone seeking to understand this subject—which means everyone who cares about the current unstable state of the world—should read The Anti-American Century."
-- Tony Judt New York University

"Anti-Americanism is a psychologically complex, politically heterogeneous, and kaleidoscopically evolving cultural attitude. Anyone who wants to understand its multiple roots and paradoxical trajectories should read this fascinating book."
-- Stephen Holmes New York University School of Law

"All too often debates on anti-Americanism disintegrate into simplified black and white slogans of ‘us’ and ‘them.’ In meeting such simple stories, the essays in this volume are a welcome complication and challenge. This volume brings international voices into the dialogue helping us to disentangle the multi-faceted social and political narratives of ‘anti-Americanism’ in this new century."
-- Diane Stone University of Warwick

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction The Anti-American Century? Ivan Krastev “Little America” Eastern European Economic Cultures in the EU Janos Matyas Kovacs Anti-Americanism in Latin America and the Caribbean: “False Populism” or Coming Full Circle? Alan McPherson Rethinking Young Anti-Americanism in South Korea Youngshik Bong and Katharine H. S. Moon How “Big Brother” Became the “Great Satan”: Changing Perceptions of the United States among the Muslim Communities of Southeast Asia Farish Ahmad Noor A Plea for Distinctions: Disentangling Anti-Americanism from Anti-Semitism Brian Klug