Review: Anti-Americanisms in World Politics, Americanism
| Author | Russell A. Berman |
| Published date | 01 June 2008 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200806300219 |
| Date | 01 June 2008 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
| Reviews |
| 490 | International Journal | Spring 2008 |
provided by the ill-starred 2006 Liberal campaign and the RCMP’s mid-cam-
paign announcement that it was investigating allegations that finance de-
partment personnel had revealed the Liberal government’s intentions not to
tax income trusts.
And it must be more than a personal vehicle. The irony underlying all
of this is that “Harper’s team” is about winning elections—but not governing.
Conservatives, when in office, have failed to build sustaining support beyond
the leader’s personal appeal. That’s their challenge in a country that has been
Liberal for a long time.
Peter Woolstencroft/University of Waterloo
ANTI-AMERICANISMS IN WORLD POLITICS
Peter J. Katzenstein and Robert O. Keohane, eds.
Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2007. 351pp, US $24.95 paper (ISBN 978-
0801473517)
AMERICANISM
The Fourth Great Western Religion
David Gelernter
New York: Doubleday, 2007. 230 pp, US $24.95 cloth (ISBN 978-0385513128)
The current debate on anti-Americanism is defined—much more so than
other scholarly disputes—by the immediate political context, and this discus-
sion is about the foreign policy of the Bush administration and its reception
around the world, especially in western Europe. Administration critics in-
voked European responses as c orroborating evidence to support their own
positions; administration defenders have tried to discount European reactions
by invoking the putative cultural frame of anti-Americanism. Simultaneously,
a more profound political debate is underway, beyond the partisan shooting
match that involves the post-Cold War international system and the role of the
United States in it. The critique of Bush’s so-called “unilateralism” is an ex-
tension of the European anxiety about American “hyperpower” that dates
from the Clinton era; it is therefore a misunderstanding to attribute current
suspicion of the US solely to actions of the Bush administration or the per-
sonality of the president. On the contrary, the political dimension of the de-
bate includes both matters of short-term electoral politics and longer-term
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