Americans and Europeans Dancing in the Dark: On Our Differences and Affinities, Our Interests, and Our Habits of Life (Hoover Institution Press Publication) PDF
Preview Americans and Europeans Dancing in the Dark: On Our Differences and Affinities, Our Interests, and Our Habits of Life (Hoover Institution Press Publication)
A E MERICANS AND UROPEANS D D ANCING IN THE ARK A M E R I C A N S AND E U R O P E A N S DANCING DARK IN THE On Our Differences and Affinities, Our Interests, and Our Habits of Life DENNIS L. BARK HOOVER INSTITUTION PRESS STANFORD UNIVERSITY STANFORD, CALIFORNIA FOR France Marie Catherine Pauline & Dwight, Matthew, Samuel Whichever way they cross the Atlantic they are going home PAGEv TheHooverInstitutiononWar,RevolutionandPeace,founded atStanfordUniversityin1919byHerbertHoover,whowenton tobecomethethirty-firstpresidentoftheUnitedStates,isan interdisciplinaryresearchcenterforadvancedstudyondomestic andinternationalaffairs.Theviewsexpressedinitspublicationsare entirelythoseoftheauthorsanddonotnecessarilyreflecttheviews ofthestaff,officers,orBoardofOverseersoftheHooverInstitution. www.hoover.org HooverInstitutionPressPublicationNo.554 Copyright(cid:2)2007bytheBoardofTrusteesofthe LelandStanfordJuniorUniversity Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybe reproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted inanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical, photocopying,recording,orotherwise,withoutwritten permissionofthepublisher. Firstprinting,2007 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ManufacturedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica Thepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstheminimumrequirements oftheAmericanNationalStandardforInformationSciences— PermanenceofPaperforPrintedLibraryMaterials,ANSIZ39.48–1992.(cid:3)(cid:2) LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Bark,DennisL. AmericansandEuropeansdancinginthedark:onourdifferencesandaffinities, ourinterests,andourhabitsoflife/DennisL.Bark. p. cm.—(HooverInstitutionPresspublication;no.554) Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN-13:978-0-8179-4801-6(cloth:alk.paper) ISBN-13:978-0-8179-4802-3(alk.paper) 1.Nationalcharacteristics,European. 2.Nationalcharacteristics,American. 3.Europe—Relations—UnitedStates. 4.UnitedStates—Relations—Europe. I.Title. D1055.B266 2007 303.48(cid:3)24073—dc22 2007003568 Contents Foreword ix Acknowledgments xv AbouttheAuthor xix Introduction 1 PART ONE Continental Contrasts Preface 9 ChapterI:Differences 11 TheEssentialDifference 11 FromtheTopDown 12 Aristocrats,OldandNew 14 FromtheBottomUp 27 TheEssentialDifference,Again 32 ChapterII:OnHistory,Heritage,andHabitsofLife 45 Geography,Distance,andSpace 45 ArtandMusic,Language,Manners,andHabitsofLife 58 ViewsfromtheBackyard 79 PART TWO Qualities of Life Preface 91 viii Contents Chapter III:Equality,Opportunity,Stability 93 TheEuropeanSocio-EconomicModel,The AmericanModel 93 SocialisminEuropeandAmerica 98 Thepost-1945Politicaland EconomicOrder 109 Chapter IV:Uncommon Marketplaces 123 TheConceptoftheUnion 123 WhenRealitiesAreTrump 136 GreatExpectations 149 Competition 153 PART THREE Freedom and Order Preface 165 Chapter V:Legacies,AncientandModern 167 TheIdeaandtheTree 167 HistoryLessons 181 Chapter VI:TheFlyintheSoup 193 ChangingRelationships 193 InterpretingSeptember11,2001 202 Chapter VII:TheForceofThings 211 AspectsofLeadership 211 NewCrossroads 219 ObligationsWrittenintheHeart 223 Appendix1:AComparativeChartofEuropeanCountries 227 Appendix2:‘‘AnAmericanis...’’ 231 Appendix3:‘‘TheInternational’’ 233 Notes 235 ASelectedBibliographyforFurtherReading 253 Index 261 PAGEviii Foreword Dennis Bark is an unabashed Atlanticist who believes that what Americans and Europeans have in common is far more importantthanwhatdividesthem,andthatasalliestheyhave aresponsibilitytoprovide clearand strongleadershipinaworldbadlyin needofit. Thecollapseofcommunistregimesin1989–1990gaveAmericansand Europeans an unprecedented chance to do so. But during the decade of the 1990s, while this opportunity was open to them, they ignored the logical consequence of the end of the Cold War; namely, the obligation to set new economic, political, and diplomatic goals to replace the com- mon front they had maintained while the Iron Curtain divided Europe. Instead,theyremainedwithinthecomfortableconfinesoftheirrespective backyards, from which, in the wake of the terrorist attack on the World TradeCenter,theysafelyhurledinsultsateachother,thusdemonstrating aspectsofleadershipthatwereunworthyoftheword. If the twentieth century was marked by an American-European part- nership of unprecedented mutual interests, and by an appreciation of common values, and for some by a friendship made of trust, affection and respect, this book’s title suggests that the once-storied relationship is comingapart.FormanytheAtlanticDividehaswidened.Indeed,agreat manythingshavechangedsincethefirstquarterofthetwentiethcentury when Theodore Roosevelt invited his good friend, French ambassador Jean-JulesJusserand—marriedtoanAmericanfromaNewEnglandfam- ily—toattendcabinetmeetings inWashington. Thesechanges arethe subjectofthe author’sreflections ondifferences PAGEix x Foreword between Europeans and Americans. Bark focuses on our varied habits of life about which widespread ignorance exists in both America and in Eu- rope. His observations are neither pro-American nor anti-European, but they are astute, and they warrant careful reading as he sets out what our differencesare,wheretheycomefrom,andhowtheyaffectourjudgments of each other. He points out as well that Europeans think they know a great deal more about America than they really do, and conversely that AmericansareblithelyunawareofhowlittletheyknowaboutEurope. In a series of essays that describe significant differences between AmericaandEurope,Barksendshisreadersaclearandpowerfulmessage; namely, that we Europeans should pay greater attention to the values we sharewithAmerica,aswedidfollowingWorldWarIIandduringthefirst decadesofEuropeanunification,untilthefalloftheBerlinWallin1989. Europeans should cast aside our prejudices and jealousies, and espe- cially our absurd sense of superiority that is sometimes conducive to ha- tred. At the same time, Americans need not inflame these tendencies by needlessly dealing with their European counterparts in an overbearing or dismissivemanner,suchasdrawingagratuitousdistinctionbetween‘‘Old Europe’’ and ‘‘New Europe.’’ A more respectful and nuanced approach, the norm when European elites conduct business among themselves, is verymuchinorderandmuch moreeffective. These latter considerations, far from new, as Bark is well aware, also concerned Jean-Jules Jusserand. He knew America well, and, in fact, served as president of the American Historical Association in 1921, and received the first Pulitzer Prize in American History in 1923. Jusserand wasunusuallyprescientinhisfinallettertohisAmericanfriends;aletter, virtually unknown today, that Bark cites with effect. Written late in his lifeandafterhisretirementfromtheFrenchdiplomaticservice,hecalled hismessage,‘‘farewellforever:’’ The sands in the hour-glass are running low; I must take leave, probably forever.Maypeace,prosperity,happyhomesbethemeedofyourenergy, goodsense andkindhearts.Whenwejudgeeach otherwearenotbound toapplaudallthattheotherdoes,noreventoavoidexpressingourblame PAGEx
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