ABSTRACT
Anti-Americanism remains an elusive phenomenon, despite the widespread use of the term, and the common perception that it signifies what George Orwell would have called an increasing ‘tendency’ in public discourse. Nonetheless, like so many words and phrases that litter the contemporary landscape of political commentary (think of ‘globalization’ or ‘Islamic fundamentalism’), the term is a clumsy attempt to describe a rising sensibility whose contours and causes are the subject matter of this book. The term itself is composed of two words, the first meaning ‘against’ and the second, well, therein lies a problem. If one could identify a movement, ideology or even a vague set of beliefs to bring some order to the term ‘Americanism’, then it would be relatively easy to identify its opposite. In their absence, defining anti-Americanism is a difficult exercise. Nonetheless, the term is part of our vocabulary and we need to have some way of grasping its meaning and significance in the highly charged debates that surround the role of the United States in the world.
