Anti-americanism and americanophobia : a French perspective
Abstract
French anti-americanism has never been as much the focus of debate as it is today. This is true both in France, where a crop of books has appeared on the subject, and in the United States, for more immediate reasons – notably the critical attitude of French diplomacy to the Iraq war. Some authors have underlined the unchanging historical nature of the phenomenon, defining the anti-American sentiment as an historical “invariable” since the 18th century, a bloc sémantique, in Philippe Roger’s words. Others, like Jean-François Revel, tried especially to show what lay hidden behind such a fashionable and politically correct ideology: a deep-rooted critique of economic liberalism and American democracy. Yet others, while rejecting the anti-American label, like Emmanuel Todd, have attempted to lift the veil and lay bare the weaknesses of American democracy and the extreme economic fragility of an American empire “in decline”, despite appearances.
Origin : Files produced by the author(s)