Western Europe's America Problem
When my father and I arrived in the United States as immigrants from Romania — by way of Vienna — in the summer of 1960, we spent a number of weeks living with American families in the greater New York area. Some were Jews, like us; most were not. But all spoke some German because our English was virtually nonexistent at the time. What impressed me no end, and will always remain with me, was how all those people adored my Viennese-accented German, how they reveled in it, found it elegant, charming, and above all oh-so-cultured. For business and family reasons, my father had to return to Vienna, where I attended the Theresianische Akademie, one of Austria's leading gymnasia. The welcome accorded to me in that environment was much colder and more distant than it had been in the United States, not by dint of my being a Tschusch and a Zuagraster, an interloper from the disdained eastern areas of Europe, but by virtue of having become a quasi American.
Uncouth Nation: Why Europe Dislikes America
Foreword vii Preface xi Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Anti-Americanism as a European Lingua Franca 11 Chapter 2: European Anti-Americanism: A Brief Historical Overview 38 Chapter 3: The Perceived "Americanization" of All Aspects of European Lives: A Discourse of Irritation and Condescension 81 Chapter 4: The Massive Waning of America's Image in the Eyes of Europe and the World 135 Chapter 5: "Twin Brothers": European Anti-Semitism and Anti-Americanism 150 Chapter 6: Anti-Americanism: A Necessary and Welcomed Spark to Jump-start a European Identity? 201 Notes 225 Index 265
Reality TV: The Work of Being Watched
Chapter 1 1 Between the New Medium and the Old Chapter 2 2 The Promise of the Digital Revolution Chapter 3 3 Rediscovering Reality Chapter 5 4 The Kinder, Gentler Gaze of Big Brother Chapter 6 5 Access to the Real Chapter 7 6 It's All About the Experience Chapter 8 7 Reality TV and Voyeurism Chapter 9 8 Survivor and Uncanny Capitalism Chapter 10 Bibliography