European Anti-Americanism: Analysis of a Pedigreed Prejudice

The event was organized by the Jewish Studies Project and the CPS Anti-Americanism Program.

The lecture was a summary of Andrei Markovits's book "Amerika. Dich hasst sich's besser. Antiamerikanismus und Antisemitismus in Europa" of which there were copies available.

"There is no doubt that the policies of the Bush Administration has massively contributed to a hitherto unprecedented deterioration in European-American relations. More than that, hating America have become a global ideology. My book - and my presentation - argues that this ideology, prejudice and hatred dates at least as far back as July 5, 1776, if not before. I will present a conceptual framework of anti-Americanism, then give historical examples, to be followed by a summary of a detailed empirical study that I have conducted in the present and very recent past. Concentrating on Germany, Britain, France and Italy, the data - I believe - reveal that anti-Americanism - at least on the elite level - has been endemic and has now become epidemic. Lastly, I will discuss anti-Americanism's twin - anti-Semitism - in my concluding remarks." (A. Markovits)

Andrei Markovits is Professor of Politics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is the author and editor of many books, scholarly articles, conference papers, book reviews and newspaper contributions in English and many foreign languages on topics as varied as German and Austrian politics, anti-Semitism, anti-Americanism, social democracy, social movements, the European right and the European left. He has also worked extensively on comparative sports culture and American sports. One of Markovits's publications is Offside: Soccer and American Exceptionalism (2001).