America through foreign eyes

America through foreign eyes

Jorge G. Castañeda, 1953-

Book - 2020

"Foreigners have been writing about the United States ever since its foundation. Now it is my turn. But please don't hold this against me: the United States itself is at fault. Like a great many people on earth, I've long been fascinated by this remarkable phenomenon which calls itself America. My fate -or perhaps good fortune- has been that of a foreigner who for half a century lived the American experience-as a child, as a student, as an author, as a recurrent visitor and as a university professor. Being Mexican places me in a special category: having lost half its territory to the United States in the 19th century, having found itself caught up in the maelstrom of America's current identity crisis, Mexico can never ig...nore what happens north of the border. Further, while serving as Mexico's Foreign Minister from 2000 to 2003, I had the privilege of peeping inside the machinery of power that makes this great nation tick. That said, this book is not written from a Mexican perspective but rather from that of a sympathetic foreign critic who has seen the United States from both inside and outside. And its hope is to contribute something to how Americans view themselves and are viewed by the world. Before embarking on this journey, I naturally looked back at some of my forebears, earlier foreigners who were drawn to visit or live in the United States and who then went on to offer their version of America to their home readers. Some like the French traveler Alexis de Tocqueville, author of the early 19th century classic, Democracy in America, felt European nations had much to learn from the American democratic experiment. Others like Charles Dickens left dismayed by what he considered to be the country's singular obsession with money. But they are just two of dozens who have tried-and continue to try- to find a magic key that unlocks the complexities and contradictions of American society. Indeed, it is as if the United States seeks to challenge foreign writers to explain it, confident they will fail. And in taking it on, these outsiders have variously experienced frustration, hope, anger, excitement, disappointment and enlightenment- but never indifference"--

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Subjects
Exceptionalism > United States.
National characteristics, American.
United States > Foreign public opinion.
United States > Politics and government.
United States > Social conditions.
Published
New York, NY : Oxford University Press [2020]
Language
English
Main Author
Jorge G. Castañeda, 1953- (author)
Item Description
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Physical Description
viii, 307 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
ISBN
9780190224493
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction
  • 1. American sameness, or the world's first middle class
  • 2. How exceptional is American exceptionalism?
  • 3. The blessings of American culture and the road to American civilization
  • 4. Dysfunctional democracy and its discontents
  • 5. Don't know much about history ... but "If you find it hard to laugh at yourself, I would be happy to do it for you." (Groucho Marx)
  • 6. Apple and Wall Street
  • 7. American pragmatism and hypocrisy: drugs and immigration
  • 8. Race and religion in America
  • 9. The unforgivable: mass incarceration, the death penalty, guns, and intelligent design
  • 10. A final word: an end to American difference?
  • Notes
  • Index
Review by Kirkus Book Review

Astute observations about both the expanse of American "civilization" and the dilution of its "exceptionalism." The United States has always been subject to scrutiny and criticism, from de Tocqueville to Borat, and Castañeda--the global professor of political science and Latin American studies at NYU who served as the foreign minister of Mexico from 2000 to 2003--is a rather avuncular critic of many aspects of American society. Via his meandering notes on the middle class, humor, "dysfunctional" democracy, racial issues, and other topics, he provides mostly valuable and useful analysis. Interestingly, he counters some of the usual, often heard criticism from Europeans and Latin Americans about the American "sameness," uniformity, and homogeneity, examining in comparative graphs the rise of the middle class. While it was, on one hand, the envy of the world--cars, TVs, and other gadgets in every household--it masked the "underlying diversity" that made up the country and largely excluded significant populations of blacks, Natives, and Latinos. The relative equality of income distribution peaked in the late 1960s and has grown increasingly unequal since. Castañeda also examines the country's much-vaunted (and highly problematic) systems of meritocracy and expectation of social mobility--and how the latter trend has declined below the levels of many European countries. The other "defining trait" of America--after uniformity and obsession with money--is "exceptionalism," a myth that the author explodes, quoting Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes: "The United States has been the bearer of a nationalism as aggressive and self-celebratory as any European imperial power." In the last, hard-hitting chapter, "The Unforgivable," Castañeda explores how America's grand Enlightenment ideals have been trampled by a "breach of contract with liberalism and tolerance" in terms of "mass incarceration, the death penalty, guns, and intelligent design." A largely detached observer offers a series of digestible, timely assessments of the U.S. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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