George Hawkey writes to me:
I know you’ve posted “best books” queries on the site before, so here goes. Do you have any input on the best books about American History and Culture, but written from a non-American point-of-view?
Obviously Tocqueville, and there’s a whole raft of Canadian published books on the US culture as well. What I’m looking for is more like: what would “The Best and the Brightest” be if it were written by a Japanese journalist. Or what if Taylor Branch’s “Parting the Waters” trilogy was written by a Russian sociologist? “The World Is Flat” but written about the US by an Indian?
In many cases, I’m guessing these texts are not yet or will never be translated, but I’m still interested in finding greater perspective on the US than what’s provided by the traditional pundits, authors and historians.
I’ll recommend these five works of fiction, starting with Nabokov and how about Ayn Rand as well? The comments are open for your further suggestions…
If you’re doing fiction, isn’t a natural choice Kafka’s Amerika?
Also fiction, but books in some ways about America by foreigners, first Eduard Limonov’s _It’s Me, Eddie_ (apparently also sold sometimes as “Fuck off, America”) is very good. Less clearly about America, or at least all of it, but excellent is J.M. Coetzee’s _Elizabeth Costello_- very good on parts of U.S. academic life, by a non-American.
“The Ugly American” is a classic. “How They See Us: Meditations on America” is a collection of essays. Also good.
Beppe Severgnini’s “Ciao America!”.
I’d suggest David Lodge, Changing Places, but then I remembered that Berkley doesn’t qualify as America. Dickens’ American Notes is good.
Rick Mercer – “Talking to Americans”
Micklethwait and Woolridge of The Economist wrote a book published c. 2005 whose title escapes me at the moment that wasn’t too bad.
Although focused on a region, I’d suggest V. S. Naipaul’s “A Turn in the South”
“A Turn in the South” is great!
Baudrillard’s America. Reflections on travels through America through the eyes of a serious French scholar. What more could you ask for?
I loved that book. At times it feels over the top, but still a lot of fun.
I’m currently reading my way through Land Without Ghosts: Chinese Impressions of America from the Mid-Nineteenth Century to the Present. It’s a fascinating collection of translated essays on America from a decidedly non-western perspective.
Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel “The Namesake” .
+1
It’s not exactly the most up to date book about America, but “How To Scrape Skies” by George Mikes fits the bill just fine. And if you haven’t read it yet – please do!
The best book of this variety is a series of essays by then-American-turned-Englishman-turned-American-again Bill Bryson, titled “Notes from a Big Country.” Absolutely hilarious, completely insightful.
Michael Pearson’s “Those Damned Rebels: The American Revolution as Seen Through British Eyes” comes to mind.
the best hint what really differs America – was when I read this NY times article
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/health/080800hth-behavior-culture.html (How Culture Molds Habits of Thought By Erica Goode – search for it is a link is not available for you ( somehow I can access it )) while being native US point of view – this gives understanding of how sincere observer could look at what happened (s) in US from outside.
as for real usefulness of outside views – I doubt in them.
But still – if there are interesting books of such kind – will take a look.
Domestic Manners of the Americans, by Fanny Trollope, brilliant acerbic mother of the prolific 19th-c. novelist Anthony Trollope (who founded the British post office).
America, Jean Baudrillard
Fate, a novella-length section of Roberto Bolano’s novel 2066
Do expats count? They probably have the most nuanced perspective. Try Henry James on Americans abroad, James Baldwin, Gertrude Stein’s The Making of Americans.
I’ll second Matt’s choice. If you want to know how many Russian immigrants really see America, Limonov’s “It’s me, Eddie” is a great place to start, even now 30 years later. Russian literature is actually full of books about the US – Aksyonov’s “In Search of Melancholy Baby” is also interesting.
Land of the Dollar by George Warrington Stevens
Alistair Cooke’s American Journey, which is the great man’s trip around the country whilst WW2 was raging a continent away, and is an absolutely sublime travel journal. It also gives you an appreciation of just how BIG the US is – not purely in the geographical sense, but how little non-parochial issues outside American borders could possibly ever matter to Joe the Plumber. Might be my favorite ever book.
Part of Celine’s, Journey to the end of Night is set in the US (the hero works for Ford). Not a novel, but Werner Herzog’s
film, Stroszek, is a very funny outsider’s view of north central US.
Hannah Arendt’s “On Revolution,” which compares and contrasts the 18th Century American vs. French revolutions is awesome. Her thesis being that the American revolution was awesome while the French was… not. By her definition, as of the end of her life the American revolution was the only successful one in the sense that it ended with the constitution of a new government. She said all other revolutions, largely modeled on the French, have failed in one of the following ways: they’ve been ended by a later revolution (e.g. Castro overthrew Batista); they’ve ended by outside intervention (Viet Nam invaded Cambodia, we unseated Saddam in Iraq); or they became a foundationless “permanent revolution” (Castro’s still in Cuba and there’s really no authentic government, Saddam had a government of lackeys.) Arendt died before the Velvet Revolution and also before the death of Mao in China so I don’t know what she’d have to say about contemporary Czechoslovakia or China. (I think she’d have appreciated the former and might have had to adjust her model over the latter since China.)
Anyway, her analysis of the conditions in America and how they made our revolution more likely to succeed than European ones is thoughtful as is her analysis of the motivations of the revolutionary leaders, almost all of whom were aware they’d have remained more prosperous had they remained British citizens, and who were further aware that they really would hang separately if their revolution failed.
What I learned from it is that a great country needs great citizens. Yet another reason I don’t care much for capital-L Libertarians because they don’t seem to see themselves as citizens at all. Just really, really passive-aggressive taxpayers. A country with only taxpayers isn’t much of a country at all.
figleaf
Paul Johnson – history of the American people
And with regards to an Indian writing about the us: fareed zakaria
Jonathon Raban, a british expat, has for years explored what it means to be American. I highly recommend Old Glory and Bad Land.
Yes.
“Genre in Popular Music” – Fabian Holt
“The Joshua Tree” by U2. Okay, so it’s not a book.
Saul Bellow is Canadian born.
A recent one – by Australian historian, Prime Ministerial speechwriter (for Paul Keating) and humorist, Don Watson, called American Journeys. Explores in a lot of detail what culturally distinguishes the US from other western cultures. Trenchantly liberal but not at all stentorian about it.
Relatively recent books:
American Vertigo by BHL
http://www.amazon.com/American-Vertigo-Traveling-Footsteps-Tocqueville/dp/1400064341
and
The Conservative Revolution in America by Guy Sorman
http://www.amazon.com/Conservative-Revolution-America-Guy-Sorman/dp/0895268183/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304978828&sr=1-7
Also by Guy Sorman (but in French or Spanish only):
Made in USA
http://www.amazon.com/MADE-USA-GUY-SORMAN/dp/225311376X/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304978828&sr=1-4
The Frenchman Michel Chevalier followed Tocqueville but writes much more comprehsive account with far less adverbial and
judgmental analysis . One memorable passage portrays a gent quietly getting drunk in a saloon. Two years laterthe same gent–William Henry Harrison–is sworn in as President of the United States.
William Gibson became a foreigner. His latest trilogy of books are pretty good.
There’s a whole slew of documentaries on America made by European art film makers. The most famous were made by Louis Malle and Werner Herzog.
What it was like to be an immigrant in the US during the 40s. “America is in the Heart” by poet Carlos Bulosan.
http://www.amazon.com/America-Heart-Personal-History-Washington/dp/029595289X
Outre Mer by Paul Bourget. Free from google books:
http://books.google.com/books?id=JXR1AAAAMAAJ&dq=outre%20mer&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false
Outre Mer is far, far better than Tocqueville. It’s the closest you can actually get to taking a time machine to 1890′s America.
“O America When You and I Were Young” by Luigi Barzini is also an exceptional book both for its content and prose. Again, it really makes feel what it was like to in America in the 1920′s.
“The Land of the Dollar” is also quite good. Again, it’s a foreigners account of 1890′s America. Free on google books: http://books.google.com/books?id=M7ETAAAAYAAJ&dq=the%20land%20of%20the%20dollar&pg=PP9#v=onepage&q&f=false
I’ve also had “Life and Liberty” by Mackay and “American Notes” by Dickens recommended to me by the same person who recommended the above books, but I haven’t had a chance to finish them.
Sayyid Qutb’s “The America I Have Seen,” collected in the book “America in an Arab Mirror.” I don’t agree with anything in it, but it is fascinating to read aesthetic complaints about Colorado in the 1940s by the founding theorist of Islamism, especially as his prose style reads a lot like Humbert Humbert.
Book reccomendation posts are one of the best things on MR; no better way to stumble upon relatively unappreciated gems.
Inscrutable Americans by Anurag Mathur. Very funny and highly recommended.
http://www.amazon.com/Inscrutable-Americans-Anurag-Mathur/dp/8171670407/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1305034399&sr=8-1
Paul Watzlawick had an excellent short book called “Users Guide to America” (Gebrauchsanweisung fur Amerika). It’s been translated into Italian — but not English. It was written in 1978, was reissued in 2008 per Amazon.
“Visions from San Francisco Bay” by Czeslaw Milosz.
Roy Jenkins, a British politcal intellectual, who was Labor then Liberal, wrote a series of books on leading American figures. Paul Johnson, the iconoclastic Conservative, has had a long interest in America, resulting in several books.
How to Read Donald Duck and/or The Empire’s Old Clothes by Ariel Dorfman. Not exactly about the place, but about the culture we export (and expropriate).
Explores in a lot of detail what culturally distinguishes the US from other western cultures.It’s been translated into Italian — but not English.
Right Nation by economist editor John Mcawaite (sp?) Good history of the conservative movement and the Bush family transition to establishment Republicans to Conservative…
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