 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Trade in Anglomania: A European Love Affair for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Plus, get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'This delightful, witty and learned study is an exploration of the extraordinary fantasies, misperceptions and ill-judged adoration which have marked the continental view of England over the past two centuries.' Michael Ignatieff 'Emblematic of the wonderful misunderstandings which have historically been at the heart of a certain sort of Anglomania... Political... cultural... sartorial and... eccentric... Buruma has a wonderfully sharp yet sympathetic eye.' Guardian 'Ideas fly from it like wasps from a kicked nest.' The Times 'Fascinating... A quirky but deeply thoughtful exploration of the problems of identity, assimilation and belonging... A marvellously stimulating, idea-packed book.' Daily Telegraph
Product Description
With its distinctive history of civil liberties and the delicate balance between social order and the free pursuit of self-interest, England has always fascinated its continental neighbours. Buruma examines the history of ideas of Englishness and what Europeans have admired (or loathed) in England across the centuries. Voltaire wondered why British laws could not be transplanted into France, or even to Serbia; Karl Marx thought the English were too stupid to start a revolution; Goethe worshipped Shakespeare; and, the Kaiser was convinced that Britain was run by Jews. Combining the stories of European Anglophiles and Anglophobes with memories of his own Anglo-Dutch-German-Jewish family, this utterly original book illuminates the relationship between Britain and Europe, revealing how Englishness - and others' views of it - have shaped modern European history.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an enjoyable and accessible popular history of European Anglophiles. The Anglo-Dutch author Ian Buruma discusses Voltaire, Goethe, and many other assorted Continental Anglophiles. Radical exiles, such as the Russian Alexander Herzen, and the Italian Giuseppe Mazzini (and countless others), admired England for its liberties, whilst the Zionist Theodor Herzl admired the manners and breeding of the English aristocracy. This is contrasted with the schizophrenic Anglophilia/Anglophobia of Kaiser Wilhem II, who was half-British and had love-hate attitude to England.
Buruma also touches upon the architect Nikolaus Pesvner, who had a somewhat contradictory love of both English art and modernism. (There is a memorable interview with David Watkin on this.) Although he does not name him, there is an amusing, unflattering pen portrait of Simon Heffer (p. 289). In the last chapters, he is unsympathetic to Euroscepticism, preposterously seeing it as akin to Nazism, and calls for a federal Europe and an end to Anglophilia.
The main theme of this book is that European Anglophiles admired England for its liberal institutions and its gentlemanly manners. What they wanted to do was export these to the Continent, believing that rights were universal. As Voltaire said, "Why can't the world be more like England?" There are no footnotes but there is an informative, explanatory bibliography.
Buruma also touches upon the architect Nikolaus Pesvner, who had a somewhat contradictory love of both English art and modernism. (There is a memorable interview with David Watkin on this.) Although he does not name him, there is an amusing, unflattering pen portrait of Simon Heffer (p. 289). In the last chapters, he is unsympathetic to Euroscepticism, preposterously seeing it as akin to Nazism, and calls for a federal Europe and an end to Anglophilia.
The main theme of this book is that European Anglophiles admired England for its liberal institutions and its gentlemanly manners. What they wanted to do was export these to the Continent, believing that rights were universal. As Voltaire said, "Why can't the world be more like England?" There are no footnotes but there is an informative, explanatory bibliography.
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
