America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism by Anatol Lieven

From the Publisher

In this controversial critique of American political culture and its historical roots, Anatol Lieven contends that U.S. foreign policy since 9/11 has been shaped by the special character of our nationalism. Within that nationalism, Lieven analyses two very different traditions. One is the "American thesis," a civic nationalism based on the democratic values of what has been called the "American Creed." These values are held to be universal, and anyone can become an American by adopting them. The other tradition, the "American antithesis" is a populist and often chauvinist nationalism, which tends to see America as a closed national culture and civilization threatened by a hostile and barbarous outside world.

With America Right or Wrong, Lieven examines how these two antithetical impulses have played out in U.S. responses to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and in the nature of U.S. support for Israel. This hard-hitting critique directs a spotlight on the American political soul and on the curious mixture of chauvinism and idealism that has driven the Bush administration.

Publishers Weekly

In this provocative and scholarly work, Lieven, senior associate at Washington's Carnegie Endowment, argues that normative American patriotism-an optimistic "civic creed" rooted in respect for America's institutions, individual freedoms and constitutional law-contains a monster in the basement: a jingoistic, militaristic, Jacksonian nationalism that sees America as the bearer of a messianic mission to lead a Manichean struggle against the savages. Since 9/11, the Bush administration and its Christian-fundamentalist "base" have invoked the nationalist tradition in waging the struggle against the "evil-doers." The result, Lieven argues, has been catastrophic for the war on terror. Rather than rally to America as the beacon of liberty, other nations (particular European and Muslim ones) feel repelled and threatened by the cavalier and unilateral superpower. Lieven's provocative final chapter argues that much of U.S. support for Israel is rooted not in the "civic creed" (e.g., support for a fellow liberal democracy) but in a nationalism that sees the Israelis as heroic cowboys and the Palestinians as savages who must be driven from their land, as Jackson did the Cherokees. Throughout, Lieven takes to task the American liberal intelligentsia for abandoning universalist principles in favor of ethnic chauvinism and nationalist fervor. Cogently argued, this is an important contribution to the discourse on national identity, the war on terror and the nature of political liberalism. (Oct.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Foreign Affairs

I don't hate America, I regret it! Sigmund Freud once said. "A mistake; a gigantic mistake, it is true, but a mistake none the less." This more or less is where Lieven comes out in his intelligent and often provocative new book. He makes all the usual criticisms of America's "red state," religious, and populist nationalist culture, but he has it in for the "blue states" as well. "The American Creed"—the tolerant liberal internationalism that informs the generally secular civic faith of nonfundamentalist, non-Darwin-bashing Americans—strikes Lieven as a dangerous form of messianic universalism. Since September 11, in his view, a perverse synthesis between these two unappealing ideologies has shaped the U.S. response to Islamist terrorism: the outraged populist, Jacksonian nationalism of the masses has fused with Wilsonian messianism to provide support for George W. Bush and his neoconservative henchmen. Lieven is pessimistic: these failings are likely to drive us to our doom. But although these are interesting (if not completely original) insights, one awaits Lieven's explanation of why a state with such a deeply dysfunctional culture has succeeded so brilliantly on the international stage for so long.

Product Details

• Table of Contents

Table of Contents