Editing Anti-Americanism (section)

=== 18th and 19th centuries ===
==== Degeneracy thesis ====
In the mid- to late-eighteenth century, a theory emerged among some European intellectuals which stated that the landmasses of the [[New World]] were inherently inferior to that of Europe. Proponents of the so-called "degeneracy thesis" held the view that climatic extremes, humidity and other atmospheric conditions in America physically weakened both men and animals.<ref name=hatingamerica>{{cite book |first=Barry |last=Rubin |author-link=Barry Rubin |author2=Rubin, Judith Colp |title=Hating America: A History |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2004 |isbn=0-19-530649-X}}</ref>{{rp|3–19}} American author [[James W. Ceaser]] and French author Philippe Roger have interpreted this theory as "a kind of prehistory of anti-Americanism"<ref name=Ceaser>{{cite journal | url=http://www.thepublicinterest.com/archives/2003summer/article1.html | title=A genealogy of anti-Americanism | author=Ceaser, James W. | journal=[[The Public Interest]] | date=Summer 2003 | access-date=3 May 2005 | archive-date=22 February 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170222050520/http://www.thepublicinterest.com/archives/2003summer/article1.html | url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Granthem>{{cite journal | last =Grantham | first =Bill |date=Summer 2003 | title =Brilliant Mischief: The French on Anti-Americanism | journal =[[World Policy Journal]] | volume =20 | issue =2 | pages =95–101 | doi =10.1215/07402775-2003-3011 |url=http://www.worldpolicy.org/journal/articles/wpj03-2/grantham.html|access-date=16 May 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080430075751/http://www.worldpolicy.org/journal/articles/wpj03-2/grantham.html| archive-date = 30 April 2008| url-access =subscription }}</ref> and have (in the words of Philippe Roger) been a historical "constant" since the 18th century, or again an endlessly repetitive "semantic block". Others, like [[Jean-François Revel]], have examined what lay hidden behind this 'fashionable' ideology.<ref>Denis Lacorne, [http://www.ceri-sciencespo.com/archive/mars05/artdl.pdf ANTI-AMERICANISM AND AMERICANOPHOBIA : A FRENCH PERSPECTIVE] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110524043828/http://www.ceri-sciencespo.com/archive/mars05/artdl.pdf |date=24 May 2011 }}, March 2005.</ref> Purported evidence for the idea included the smallness of [[Fauna of the United States|American fauna]], dogs that ceased to bark, and venomous plants;<ref name=Meunier>{{cite web | last =Meunier | first =Sophie | author-link =Sophie Meunier | date =March 2005 | title =Anti-Americanism in France | publisher =[[Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs]], [[Princeton University]] | url =http://www.jhfc.duke.edu/ducis/GlobalEquity/pdfs/Meunier.pdf | access-date =18 May 2008 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20080527224611/http://www.jhfc.duke.edu/ducis/GlobalEquity/pdfs/Meunier.pdf | archive-date =27 May 2008 }}</ref> one theory put forth was that the New World had emerged from the [[Biblical flood]] later than the [[Old World]].<ref name=Popkin>{{cite journal|last=Popkin |first=Richard H. |date=January 1978 |title=The Dispute of the New World: The History of a Polemic, 1750–1900 (review) |journal=[[Journal of the History of Philosophy]] |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=115–118 |url=http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/journal_of_the_history_of_philosophy/v016/16.1popkin.pdf |access-date=27 May 2008 |quote=Jefferson, who was U.S. ambassador to Paris after the Revolution, was pushed by the rampant anti-Americanism of some of the French intellectuals to publish the only book of his that appeared in his lifetime, the [[Notes on Virginia]] (1782–1784) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080528141305/http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=%2Fjournals%2Fjournal_of_the_history_of_philosophy%2Fv016%2F16.1popkin.pdf |archive-date=28 May 2008 |url-status=live |doi=10.1353/hph.2008.0035 |s2cid=147006780 }}</ref> [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]] were also held to be feeble, small, and without ardor.<ref name=Goldstein>{{cite web |first=James A. |last=Goldstein |url=http://lsr.nellco.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1019&context=rwu/rwufp |title=Aliens in the Garden |access-date=22 May 2008 |publisher=nellco.org (Posted with permission of the author) |work=Roger Williams University School of Law Faculty Papers }}{{Dead link|date=November 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

The theory was originally proposed by [[Comte de Buffon]], a leading French naturalist, in his ''[[Histoire Naturelle]]'' (1766).<ref name=Goldstein/> The French writer [[Voltaire]] joined Buffon and others in making the argument.<ref name=Meunier/> [[Dutch Republic|Dutchman]] [[Cornelius de Pauw]], court philosopher to [[Frederick II of Prussia]] became its leading proponent.<ref name=Ceaser/> While Buffon focused on the American biological environment, de Pauw attacked the people who were native to the continent.<ref name=Popkin/> James Ceaser has noted that the denunciation of America as inferior to Europe was partially motivated by the German government's fear of mass [[emigration]]; de Pauw was called upon to convince the Germans that the new world was inferior. De Pauw is also known to have influenced the philosopher [[Immanuel Kant]] in a similar direction.<ref>{{cite book|first1 = Brendan|last1 = O'Connor|last2 = Griffiths|first2 = Martin|title = Anti-Americanism – Historical Perspectives|year = 2007|page = 8| publisher=Greenwood Publishing |isbn = 9781846450259|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=KF0pySH-ozsC&pg=PA8|access-date = 8 November 2020|archive-date = 26 January 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210126131052/https://books.google.com/books?id=KF0pySH-ozsC&pg=PA8|url-status = live}}</ref>

De Pauw said that the New World was unfit for human habitation because it was, "so ill-favored by nature that all it contains is either degenerate or monstrous". He asserted that, "the earth, full of putrefaction, was flooded with lizards, snakes, serpents, reptiles and insects". Taking a long-term perspective, he announced that he was, "certain that the conquest of the New World...has been the greatest of all misfortunes to befall mankind."<ref>C. Vann Woodward, ''The Old World's New World'' (1991) p 6</ref>

The theory made it easier for its proponents to argue that the natural environment of the United States would prevent it from ever producing a true culture. Echoing de Pauw, the [[Encyclopédie|French Encyclopedist]] [[Abbé Raynal]] wrote in 1770, "America has not yet produced a good poet, an able mathematician, one man of genius in a single art or a single science".<ref>{{cite book|author=James W. Ceaser|title=Reconstructing America: The Symbol of America in Modern Thought|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t5kvAruS5H0C&pg=PA26|year=1997|publisher=Yale U.P.|page=26. Note: Ceaser writes in his endnote to this sentence (p. 254), that "...in later editions of his work, Raynal exempted North America, but not South America, from this criticism"|isbn=0300084536|access-date=29 October 2015|archive-date=5 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160105152107/https://books.google.com/books?id=t5kvAruS5H0C&pg=PA26|url-status=live}}</ref> The theory was debated and rejected by early American thinkers such as [[Alexander Hamilton]], [[Benjamin Franklin]], and [[Thomas Jefferson]]; Jefferson, in his ''[[Notes on the State of Virginia]]'' (1781), provided a detailed rebuttal of de Buffon from a scientific point of view.<ref name=Ceaser/> Hamilton also vigorously rebuked the idea in [[Federalist No. 11]] (1787).<ref name=Goldstein/>

One critic, citing Raynal's ideas, suggests that it was specifically extended to the [[Thirteen Colonies]] that would become the United States.<ref>{{cite journal | last =Danzer | first =Gerald A. |date=February 1974 | title =Has the Discovery of America Been Useful or Hurtful to Mankind? Yesterday's Questions and Today's Students | journal =The History Teacher | volume =7 | issue =2 |pages=192–206| doi =10.2307/491792 | jstor =491792}}</ref>{{clarify|date=August 2014<!-- is the critic spoken of here Gerald Danzer, or someone (perhaps Jeremy Bellknap, perhaps someone else) of whom Professor Danzer writes in the paper? Where in the paper is the idea "specifically extended to the English colonies that would become the United States"?-->}}

Roger suggests that the idea of degeneracy posited a symbolic, as well as a scientific, America that would evolve beyond the original thesis. He argues that Buffon's ideas formed the root of a "stratification of negative discourses" that has recurred throughout the history of the two countries' relationship (and been matched by persistent [[Francophobia]] in the United States).<ref name=Granthem/>

==== Culture ====
{{2018 Eurobarometer - Positive views on the U.S. influence in the EU}}

According to Brendan O'Connor, some Europeans criticized Americans for lacking "taste, grace and civility," and having a brazen and arrogant character.<ref name="OConnor"/> British author [[Frances Trollope]] observed in her 1832 book ''[[Domestic Manners of the Americans]]'', that the greatest difference between the [[English people|English]] and [[Americans]] was "want of refinement", explaining: "that polish[,] which removes the coarser and rougher parts of our nature[,] is unknown and undreamed of" in America.<ref>{{cite book|last=Trollope|first=Fanny|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10345/pg10345-images.html|title=Domestic Manners of the Americans|date=2003-11-30|publisher=[[Project Gutenberg]]|access-date=2019-06-28|archive-date=25 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225210915/http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10345/pg10345-images.html|url-status=live}}<br />
Also reprinted in 2004 as:

* {{Cite book|last=Trollope|first=Fanny|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=85JeT6DTvvsC|title=Domestic Manners of the Americans|publisher=Kessinger Publishing|year=2004|isbn=978-1-4191-1638-4|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=85JeT6DTvvsC&pg=PA21 21]}}{{Dead link|date=December 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} {{ISBN|1-4191-1638-X}}, {{ISBN|978-1-4191-1638-4}}
* {{cite book|last1=Trollope|first1=Fanny|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=85JeT6DTvvsC&pg=PA21|title=Domestic Manners Of The Americans|last2=Trollope|first2=Frances Milton|date=2004-06-01|publisher=Kessinger Publishing|isbn=9781419116384|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160105152107/https://books.google.com/books?id=85JeT6DTvvsC&pg=PA21|archive-date=2016-01-05}}<!--This is probably the intended archived URL, but it fails to display the pages:
https://web.archive.org/web/20130619085547/https://books.google.com/books?id=85JeT6DTvvsC&pg=PA21#v=onepage
--></ref><ref name="Rubin">{{cite web |last=Rubin |first=Judy |title=The Five Stages of Anti-Americanism |publisher=Foreign Policy Research Institute |date=4 September 2004 |url= http://www.fpri.org/enotes/20040904.americawar.colprubin.5stagesantiamericanism.html |access-date=15 May 2008 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080513201350/http://www.fpri.org/enotes/20040904.americawar.colprubin.5stagesantiamericanism.html |archive-date=13 May 2008}}</ref> According to one source, her account "succeeded in angering Americans more than any book written by a foreign observer before or since".<ref name="Michael Shea 1986">David Frost and Michael Shea (1986) ''The Rich Tide: Men, Women, Ideas and Their Transatlantic Impact''. London, Collins: 239</ref> English writer [[Frederick Marryat|Captain Marryat]]'s critical account in his ''Diary in America, with Remarks on Its Institutions'' (1839) also proved controversial, especially in [[Detroit]] where an effigy of the author, along with his books, was burned.<ref name="Michael Shea 1986"/> Other writers critical of American culture and manners included the bishop [[Talleyrand]] in France and [[Charles Dickens]] in England.<ref name="OConnor"/> Dickens' novel ''[[Martin Chuzzlewit]]'' (1844) is a ferocious satire on American life.<ref name="hatingamerica"/>{{rp|42}}

Sources of American resentment are evident following the [[Revolutions of 1848]] and the ensuing European class struggles. In 1869, after a visit to his country of birth, the Swedish immigrant, [[Hans Mattson]] observed that, <blockquote>"...the ignorance, prejudice and hatred toward America and everything pertaining to it among the aristocracy, and especially the office holders, was as unpardonable as it was ridiculous. It was claimed by them that all was humbug in America, that it was the paradise of scoundrels, cheats, and rascals, and that nothing good could possibly come out of it."<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Meyer |first1=Cynthia Nelson |last2=Barton |first2=H. Arnold |date=1996 |title=A Folk Divided: Homeland Swedes and Swedish Americans, 1840-1940. |journal=International Migration Review |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=823 |doi=10.2307/2547650 |jstor=2547650 |s2cid=161744379 |issn=0197-9183|url=https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/annals-of-iowa/article/id/7161/ |url-access=subscription }}</ref> </blockquote>After seven years in the US, [[Ernst Skarstedt]], a graduate of Lund University and native Swede, returned to Sweden in 1885. He complained that, in upper-class circles, if he "told something about America, it could happen that in reply (he) was informed that this could not possibly be so or that the matter was better understood in Sweden."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Engberg |first=Martin J. |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.34599 |title=Svensk-amerikanska hönsboken : handledning i skötseln af höns, ankor, gäss, kalkoner, pärlhöns och påfåglar: utarbetad efter senaste och tillförlitligaste amerikanska metoder |date=1903 |publisher=Engberg-Holmberg Pub. Co |location=Chicago|doi=10.5962/bhl.title.34599 }}</ref>  The dedication of the Statue of Liberty in 1886 solidified The "[[The New Colossus|New Colossus]]" as a beacon to the "huddled masses" and their rejection of the "storied pomp" of the old world.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cunningham |first=John T. |title=Ellis Island: immigration's shining center |date=2003 |publisher=Arcadia |isbn=978-0-7385-2428-3 |location=Charleston, SC |oclc=53967006}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Auster |first=Paul |title=Collected prose: autobiographical writings, true stories, critical essays, prefaces, and collaborations with artists |date=2005 |publisher=Picador |isbn=978-0-312-42468-8 |location=New York |oclc=57694273}}</ref> 

[[Simon Schama]] observed in 2003: "By the end of the nineteenth century, the stereotype of the [[Ugly American (pejorative)|ugly American]] – voracious, preachy, mercenary, and bombastically chauvinist – was firmly in place in Europe".<ref name="Schama">{{cite magazine |last=Schama |first=Simon |title=The Unloved American |magazine=The New Yorker |date=10 March 2003 |url= https://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/03/10/030310fa_fact |access-date=23 May 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080619033559/http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/03/10/030310fa_fact |archive-date=19 June 2008}}</ref> O'Connor suggests that such prejudices were rooted in an idealized image of European refinement and that the notion of high European culture pitted against American vulgarity has not disappeared.<ref name="OConnor" />

==== Politics and ideology ====
The young United States also faced criticism on political and ideological grounds. Ceaser argues that the [[Romanticism|Romantic]] strain of European thought and literature, hostile to the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] view of [[reason]] and obsessed with history and national character, disdained the [[Rationalism|rationalistic]] American project. The German poet [[Nikolaus Lenau]] commented: "With the expression ''Bodenlosigkeit'' (absence of ground), I think I am able to indicate the general character of all American institutions; what we call Fatherland is here only a property insurance scheme". Ceaser argues in his essay that such comments often repurposed the language of degeneracy, and the prejudice came to focus solely on the United States and not Canada nor Mexico.<ref name="Ceaser"/> Lenau had [[Immigration to the United States|immigrated]] to the United States in 1833 and found that the country did not live up to his ideals, leading him to return to Germany the following year. His experiences in the U.S. were the subject of a novel titled ''The America-exhaustion'' (''Der Amerika-Müde'') (1855) by fellow German [[Ferdinand Kürnberger]].<ref>''The Reader's Encyclopedia'' (1974) edited by William Rose Bennet: 556</ref>

The nature of American [[democracy]] was also questioned. The sentiment was that the country lacked "[a] monarch, aristocracy, strong traditions, official religion, or rigid class system," according to Judy Rubin, and its democracy was attacked by some Europeans in the early nineteenth century as degraded, a travesty, and a failure.<ref name="Rubin"/> The [[French Revolution]], which was loathed by many European conservatives, also implicated the United States and the idea of creating a constitution on abstract and universal principles.<ref name="Ceaser"/> That the country was intended to be a bastion of liberty was also seen as fraudulent given that it had been established with [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]].<ref name="Schama"/> "How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of Negroes?" asked [[Samuel Johnson]] in 1775.<ref>{{cite news |last=Staples |first=Brent |title=Give Us Liberty |work=The New York Times |date=4 June 2006 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/04/books/review/04staples.html |access-date=26 May 2008 |archive-date=6 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306221901/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C05EFDA113EF937A35755C0A9609C8B63&sec=&spon= |url-status=live }}</ref> He famously stated, that "I am willing to love all mankind, except an American".<ref name="Rubin"/>