Anglomania: A European Love Affair
by Ian Buruma
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Book Summary Information
Author: Ian BurumaEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2000-04-11
ISBN: 0375705368
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Vintage
Book Reviews of Anglomania: A European Love Affair
Book Review: Albion - Profound and Pefidious
Summary: 5 Stars
Why can't the world be more like England? asked Voltaire in his "Philosophical Dictionary" of 1756. To him, Britain was the land of liberty, of the rule of law and of moderation in religion and politics. Kaiser Wilhelm II would have disagreed vehemently. Despite his pride in the Order of the Garter and his position as colonel-in-chief of a Highland regiment, the ruler of the Second Reich saw Britain in similar terms as Napoleon had done, as a nation of crass materialism, lacking elan and vitality, cynically manipulating world events to keep Europe and Germany divided and weak. In this wonderful book, Ian Buruma examines the wide range of responses to Britain among Europeans through the stories of his Anglomanes - both 'phobes and 'philes - as well as from the perspective of his own family. The result is a fascinating mixture of memoir, biography and history, filled with unforgettable characters including Alexander Herzen, Karl Marx, Garibaldi, Isaiah Berlin, and Buruma's own grandparents. Towards the end, the author raises uncomfortable questions about the current state of affairs in Britain. Was Isaiah Berlin indeed the "Last Englishman," and is the "fabled land of common sense, fairness and good manners" a thing of the past?
Summary of Anglomania: A European Love Affair
"Imaginative, original--wittily written."--The Washington Post Book WorldTo some, England has long represented tolerance, reason, and political moderation. To others, it is a moribund bastion of snobbery and outdated tradition. In this lively and diverting social history, noted author Ian Buruma, himself the son of Dutch immigrants to England, provides an incisive look at anglophilia--and anglophobia--over the last two centuries.
From passionate enthusiasts like Voltaire and Goethe, to exiles like Garibaldi and Herzen, to colorful England-bashers like Napoleon, Marx, and Kaiser Wilhelm II, Anglomania gives a sharply satirical account of Europe's sometimes comical, sometimes deadly prejudices, and explains why England's individuality and her relationship with Europe is still vitally important as we enter the twenty-first century.
Voltaire, says Ian Buruma, was the ultimate Anglophile: liberal, humorous, enlightened, and ultimately humane. In that respect, he's not unlike Buruma himself, whose delightful Anglomania weaves a compelling story, from Voltaire onward, of the ways in which European exiles and émigrés have fallen under the spell of the intangible mix of snobbery, liberalism, xenophobia, and tolerance which make up the English character.
Buruma's roll call of Anglophiles is impressive. Wonderful sections on Voltaire are followed by chapters on Goethe's Bardolatry, a marvelously vivid account of frustrated revolutionary exiles in Victorian London (including Marx and Mazzini), and Theodor Herzl's vision of a Jewish state based on his admiration of the English aristocracy. The book concludes with sketches of two of the most influential Anglophiles of 20th-century English culture: Nikolaus Pevsner and Isaiah Berlin. But Buruma never loses sight of the darker side of national belonging, interweaving his own complex family history into the narrative, as well as some subtle and perceptive accounts of the state of the nation as Buruma views it from the office of The Spectator and the Conservative Party Conference in post-Thatcherite Britain. A marvelous book about belonging and Englishness: witty, erudite, subtle, and above all humane. --Jerry Brotton, Amazon.co.uk
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