Product Description

The events of September 11 were terrible; their consequences might prove to be more so. But out of them has arisen what might be called the "but" sentiment, as in "It was terrible...but the Americans were asking for it/deserved it/should have expected it". You didn't have to be on the West Bank or in Kabul to hear it. The same thought was there in British and European newspapers, in the country pubs of Kent, in the bars of Barcelona and Frankfurt. An undertow of feeling was suddenly exposed: anti-Americanism. Is the US really so disliked? If so, why? Granta asked 20 distinguished writers across the world to describe how America has affected them - culturally, politically, economically, as citizens, as writers, as children and as adults, for better or worse.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #773599 in Books
• Published on: 2002-03-14
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The bulk of Granta 77: What We Think of America, is devoted to exploring the effect of American culture, politics and economics on 24 writers in the light of the horrific events of September 11, 2001. As editor Ian Jack states in his introduction, the pieces here "are not about that day, nor are they excuses for it" but an attempt to understand quite why, after the initial outpouring of sympathy, a mood of anti-Americanism seemed to take hold. The most vocal critics of the period argued that America's policies had, effectively, "caused" the attacks. Strains of "they had it coming to them" were also heard across the globe.

With the exception of Harold Pinter who describes the United States as a "fully-fledged, award-winning, gold-plated monster", the majority of contributors offer only fairly measured critiques of American foreign policy. Ahdaf Soueif and Raja Shehadeh condemn its failure to address the issue of a Palestinian state. While Ramachandra Guha maintains that it is the curious co-existence of contradictory values--democratic and yet instinctively imperialist--that tends to make America "not a pretty sight" on the world's stage. John Gray argues that America is just "too rich in contradictions for any definition of it to be possible"; in his opinion it is actually "unknowable". Doris Lessing makes a similar point, in her view all talk of "America as if it were a homogenous unity isn't useful" but she does go on to hazard a few, actually rather pertinent, "generalisations" of her own. Taken individually some of the essays are quite insubstantial but, without wishing to be banal, it is astonishing quite how thought-provoking they are as whole. Ranging from the intimate and autobiographical to the polemical, they provide an intriguing assessment of the world's remaining superpower. With an extract from JM Coetzee's novel Youth and pieces from Blake Morrison and Ziauddin Sardar, this issue is an absorbing read.--Travis Elborough

Customer Reviews

Looking to and from America after September 11
After the terrorist attacks of September 2001, Granta asked around two dozen writers and intellectuals from all over the world to say what they thought the United States represented. Some chose to answer personally, sharing their first visits to the US, or even the first moments when they learned that it existed. Michael Ignatieff, now a professor in human rights at Harvard, talks of what he believes America represents: a big idea that is too big for Americans to have for their own – the US should be shared. British playwright Harold Pinter sees the US as an entirely malevolent force, recalling the bombing of Yugoslavia in the late 1990s. Although the collection is intended as a response to the September attacks, few of the contributors talk about 9/11. They look beyond that personal and national tragedy into their own experiences. If there is a typical response, it is that the United States will long outlast the effects of the terrorist attacks. Of course, for Harold Pinter it is the potential for mischief that will survive, while for Ignatieff what will last is the call of America’s original ideals beyond its borders.

The issue also addresses issues that in early 2002 were urgent and ever-present, but have since been forgotten as the United States has shifted its attention to Iraq. A photoessay shows the demise of the Taliban, and the rump of Afghanistan’s culture trying to recover from 25 years of war. Bearded men in baggy trousers play football in Kabul, while a shot of the main street in the Afghan capital shows an endless series of ruins. An essay from a young Muslim in England describing an extended stay in Saudi Arabia reveals that that country’s government is attempting to rewrite the history of its own territory as it has in Bosnia and Afghanistan. The Saudi government is erasing the Ottoman Turkish architectural heritage of Mecca and Medina in favour of what it regards as a more authentic ‘Arab’ style – its as if the Turks were never there. A last essay looks at madrasas in Pakistan, which continue to provide a rudimentary education to the poorest levels of society. This Pakistani problem has not been solved, as last year’s elections show, and a generation is now being educated in a way that bears little relation to the great traditions of Islamic education.

What we think of America looks at what has become the central issue of world politics from the most personal perspectives. Rather than looking at what Robert Kagan has to say about the split between Europe and the US, look at what real people have to say about America, and what are the problems that Europe and America must face in the next decade.

Looking to and from America after September 11
After the terrorist attacks of September 2001, Granta asked around two dozen writers and intellectuals from all over the world to say what they thought the United States represented. Some chose to answer personally, sharing their first visits to the US, or even the first moments when they learned that it existed. Michael Ignatieff, now a professor in human rights at Harvard, talks of what he believes America represents: a big idea that is too big for Americans to have for their own - the US should be shared. British playwright Harold Pinter sees the US as an entirely malevolent force, recalling the bombing of Yugoslavia in the late 1990s. Although the collection is intended as a response to the September attacks, few of the contributors talk about 9/11. They look beyond that personal and national tragedy into their own experiences. If there is a typical response, it is that the United States will long outlast the effects of the terrorist attacks. Of course, for Harold Pinter it is the potential for mischief that will survive, while for Ignatieff what will last is the call of America's original ideals beyond its borders.

The issue also addresses issues that in early 2002 were urgent and ever-present, but have since been forgotten as the United States has shifted its attention to Iraq. A photoessay shows the demise of the Taliban, and the rump of Afghanistan's culture trying to recover from 25 years of war. Bearded men in baggy trousers play football in Kabul, while a shot of the main street in the Afghan capital shows an endless series of ruins. An essay from a young Muslim in England describing an extended stay in Saudi Arabia reveals that that country's government is attempting to rewrite the history of its own territory as it has in Bosnia and Afghanistan. The Saudi government is erasing the Ottoman Turkish architectural heritage of Mecca and Medina in favour of what it regards as a more authentic 'Arab' style - its as if the Turks were never there. A last essay looks at madrasas in Pakistan, which continue to provide a rudimentary education to the poorest levels of society. This Pakistani problem has not been solved, as last year's elections show, and a generation is now being educated in a way that bears little relation to the great traditions of Islamic education.

What we think of America looks at what has become the central issue of world politics from the most personal perspectives. Rather than looking at what Robert Kagan has to say about the split between Europe and the US, look at what real people have to say about America, and what are the problems that Europe and America must face in the next decade.