Rating: 
Summary: An Anti-Globalization Primer
Review: THE EAGLE'S SHADOW ends with a list of problems facing the United States that neatly summarizes the main themes of Hertzgaard's thoughtful, if somewhat pro forma analysis of the new American imperium: "Our foreign policy is often arrogant and cruel and threatens to "blow back" against us in terrible ways. Our consumerist definition of prosperity is killing us, and perhaps the planet. Our democracy is an embarrassment to the word, a den of entrenched bureaucrats and legal bribery. Our media are a disgrace to the hallowed concept of freedom of the press. Our precious civil liberties are under siege, our economy is dividing us into rich and poor, our signature cultural activities are shopping and watching television. To top it off, our business and political elites are insisting that our model should also be the world's model, through the glories of corporate-led globalization."Hertzgaard goes on to say that the worst failure of all is our failure to admit these problems even exist. "How can we fix what we don't know is broken? How can we have an honest discussion about our foreign policy when we don't even admit we are an empire? How can we solve our economic problems when we can't talk intelligently about capitalism or acknowledge that the market can produce bad results as well as good? How can we address any of these problems if we rely on the feel-good fantasies transmitted by our media system which serve only to distract us from what's important and confuse us about what's true?" This is not a scholarly book, it is journalism. Good journalism, but somewhat thin, and not very intellectually rigorous. As a journalist Hertzgaard has a knack for the telling quote, (one of my favorites is a quote of Reagan talking to reporters after returning from his first trip to South America: "You'd be surprised -- they're all individual countries down there." A more chilling quote is from the new chairman of the FCC under the latest Bush, Michael Powell: "The night after I was sworn in [as commissioner], I waited for a visit from the angel of the public interest. I waited all night, but she did not come.") He also has considerable insight into cause and effect relationships that are lost on both globalization's scourges and prophets. He explains, for instance, how under the rubric of the free market, the rules of media ownership in the Reagan eras were altered to favor large media corporations. By allowing them to further agglomerate their holdings from seven to twelve media outlets, the media giants made the start-up capital needed to penetrate overseas markets. By flooding the world with "Baywatch" episodes (1 billion viewers worldwide per week), the US media uncomprehendingly lit fuses of fascination with and resentment of America across the world. He notes that more and more the question of "who will police the police" (and who will audit the auditors) has gone begging as both political parties have raced to service the demands of the business elite. Similarly, he notes that the media has so completely embraced the views of their owners that the coverage of political institutions is now conducted by insiders for insiders, the court and its courtiers. No wonder American's don't vote, he says, (114th lowest turnout worldwide among democracies in the last election). Since the media's coverage of "politics" is always about tactics, never questioning the underlying premises of an increasingly closed system whose both sides accepts the free market gospel as, well, gospel, there is no real news. Interestingly, he also blames narrow political discourse offered in the press upon the lack of a true party of the left. Because Democrats do not offer a leftist vision, and because the press only covers "viable" parties (which really means they must have big campaign chests because only those with money are deserving of coverage), there is no voice to counterbalance the depredations being practiced in Washington against those who don't have the money to pay for an audience with their representatives -- the lower and middle classes. He tries to give us the larger picture. He argues that the history of the United States and its foundational "city on the hill" discourse has had unintended and often disastrous consequences. Here's an example of his explanation of the paradoxical American character which is both millenarian and bourgeois: "Calvinism put an extra twist on American's pursuit of wealth, for it prescribed hard work for everyone and held that an unquestioning faith in God--rather than good works--was the only path to salvation. The possession of riches was a sign that God favored a given individual, just as a person's poverty signaled God's disapproval (and the person's unenviable prospects in the afterlife." While there's not a lot of truly original thinking here, Hertzgaard's cleanly and crisply tells the story of how America's exceptionalist policies and its unquestioned support of the business elite has created an empire that refuses to take responsibility for itself, and refuses to play by the rules it imposes on others. It is a valuable primer in the wake of the terrorist attacks as many Americans are asking what what their government and their corporations have been doing in their name. Fortunately, Hertzgaard points out, the rest of the world separates the American people from the policies of its government. But now, he suggests, it's up to the American people to impose their will on the United States government. He even has the temerity to suggest that buy applying our great wealth and ingenuity to the ameliorating the ravages of world poverty, we might have a better chance of winning the "war" against terrorism.
Rating:
Summary: from different perspective
Review: great book! im very sad how other people rate this book.
the writer doesnt hate america. ( believe or not )
he is only tryin to tell the truth!
i think most of americans are very ignorant.
they dont know anything about the world..this is true.
since i travel a lot and moved this country, ive experienced many things which mostly explained in this book.
this book is very popular in other countries because
it tells you almost EVERYTHING how we think about this country.
maybe the writer could add more detailed information.
so far, i loved this book a lot.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as billed
Review: Mr. Hertsgaard is a good writer, but his title is misleading. He spends little time talking about how America is viewed by the rest of the world. He begins each chapter with a few words along those lines, then trails off into a long exposition of his personal political beliefs which are left of the left wing. He has some good points but the book does live up to its title. I read it but am still largely in the dark as to how America is viewed by the rest of the world.
Rating: 
Summary: WORST BOOK I EVER FINISHED
Review: What a sucker job. All those years over seas and all those countries visited and he talked to about 6 people. From the title I thought he talked to hundreds. The rest of the book (99.6%) is him blabbering on about SUVs, high school kids being dumb, U.S. politics being corrupt, and the Wizard Of Oz. I did read ever word though. Kind of like watching a movie that is so bad its actually good. Oh yea...and I'm suppose to feel stupid because I did not know what the HARLEM RENNAISSANCE was in U.S. History. I'm too ashamed to pass this book on. I'll just recycle it.
Rating:
Summary: well written anecdotal thesis
Review: In the 1990s, Mark Hertsgaard visited 23 nations on five continents. He followed that up in 2001 with visits to fifteen countries on three continents. He interviewed numerous people in these varying nations and drew conclusions on why "America Fascinates and Infuriates the World". The book is well written making for fun reading as the audience follows Mr. Hertsgaard's anecdotal thesis to include quotes from those interviewed and other references highlighted by footnotes. Though fascinating in a vignette mode, the conclusions are not drawn from any scientific sampling. Additionally, the author focuses on reactions to America, failing to note the corollary question as to why do people infuriate other people enough to commit genocide? Still, this is an entertaining look at how some people throughout world perceive America and Americans. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: A literary "bait and switch"--truly disappointing.
Review: Mark Hertsgaard's The Eagle's Shadow has a great premise-travel the world and interview a wide-ranging cross section of foreigners to garner their assessments of the USA. Had Mr. Hertsgaard actually followed through on that premise and executed the book he describes, we might have been treated to a unique and informative text of some true value. Unfortunately, what Mr. Hertsgaard has done is to cull out a few quotes to use as launching pads for his own thoughts, concerns and whatnot. This boos is all about how Mr. Hertsgaard feels about the USA and very little about what other folks think and feel about the USA-0-or at least all those out there who disagree with Mr. Hertsgaard. Several earlier reviewers complain of the books liberal tilt-and it is liberal. That doesn't bother me. While I'm pretty conservative, I'm not one of those conservatives who feel that being liberal is a crime or a prima fascia basis to presume mental defect-I can too well remember my earlier, far more liberal days. No, the issue isn't Mr. Hertsgaard's liberalism, it's his deceit-he's sold us one thing and delivered another. This book is a classic literary "bait and switch" and that's a real shame. I think I would have enjoyed and benefited from the book Mr. Hertsgaard failed to write.
Rating:
Summary: Kakutani's review is probably all you need to know
Review: Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company
The New York Times November 15, 2002, Friday, Late Edition - Final SECTION: Section E; Part 2; Page 45; Column 1; Leisure/Weekend Desk LENGTH: 834 words HEADLINE: BOOKS OF THE TIMES;
Americans and Those in the World Who Resent Them BYLINE: By MICHIKO KAKUTANI BODY: THE EAGLE'S SHADOW
Why America Fascinates and Infuriates the World
By Mark Hertsgaard
236 pages. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. .... Six years before the events of Sept. 11, 2001, the scholar Benjamin R. Barber wrote a provocative and in some ways very prescient book, "Jihad vs. McWorld," which explored the growing post-cold-war tensions between secular consumerist capitalism and religious and ethnic fundamentalism; between the Americanized global marketplace and tribal movements virulently opposed to modernity. The subtitle of Mark Hertsgaard's new book, "The Eagle's Shadow" -- "Why America Fascinates and Infuriates the World" -- suggests that the author is going to take up where Mr. Barber left off, exploring the envy, worship and rage that America elicits abroad. But while Mr. Hertsgaard lifts some of Mr. Barber's ideas about the Americanization of global pop culture and the resentment it incurs, he neither delivers on his promise to explore "how we look to the rest of the world" nor communicates to foreigners "why America and Americans are the way we are." Instead, he has written a hectoring, fuzzy-minded book that devolves into an angry personal rant about what the author thinks is wrong about America: we are treated to long-winded and poorly reasoned diatribes about the presidential election of 2000, the inequality between rich and poor in the United States, and what the author describes as our hypocritical backing of "treacherous dictatorships that serve our perceived interests." Although Mr. Hertsgaard, a writer who is a contributor to National Public Radio, says he has spent 20 years living and traveling abroad through some 30 countries, his interviews with foreigners are sparsely sprinkled through this book. And they are thoroughly random in nature: a London cabbie here, a couple of South African teenagers there; a Japanese art historian in one chapter, an Egyptian salesman in another. Instead of seriously probing people's thoughts about America, he settles for making his own cliched generalizations. "Americans are friendly but boorish, clever but shallow, prosperous but lonely," he says of foreigners' perceptions of the United States. "They are drowning in material possessions but poor in family, friends, and community. They are oddly moralistic; they seem to find sex shameful but violence beautiful. Above all, they live to work rather than work to live." A few pages later, he adds that we are "vulgar yet devout, modern yet old-fashioned, self-righteous yet rootless." There are many significant issues raised in this book, from the consequences of America's accelerating exportation of pop culture to its current proclivity for unilateral action. But the valid points that Mr. Hertsgaard wants to make about such matters are smothered by his penchant for overstatement and outright distortion -- and his consequent unreliability as an observer. Indeed "The Eagle's Shadow" is filled with dubious generalizations and outrageous assertions. Mr. Hertsgaard writes that "our democracy is an embarrassment to the word, a den of entrenched bureaucrats and legal bribery." He writes that "our media are a disgrace to the hallowed concept of freedom of the press," that they "may as well be a formal part of the government, for all the critical distance they usually maintain." And he compares America's bombing of Dresden during World War II to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, arguing that both acts "pursued military or political objectives by killing vast numbers of civilians." "When we are ready to face facts again," he argues, "we may see that our country was in crisis before bin Laden's bombers set off on their mission of hate. Politically, we live in a democracy that barely deserves the name." Mr. Hertsgaard's skills as a logician turn out to be as poor as his skills as a political commentator. He suggests that the country's current economic woes are the result of a drop in consumer spending that reflects a post-9/11 "turning away from self-indulgence and material things" -- never mind the drop in the stock market or rising unemployment. And he writes that "achieving economic justice in America is an imposing challenge, but no more imposing than the Wizard of Oz's command that Dorothy and her compatriots bring him the broomstick of the Wicked Witch of the West" -- never mind that Oz's command is that of a humbug who simply wants to send Dorothy and her friends off on a wild goose chase. Not surprisingly, the writing in "The Eagle's Shadow" proves as flabby as its arguments. Mr. Hertsgaard exhorts us to "fight to restore fairness and fiber to our democracy" -- Grape-Nuts, anyone? -- and he concludes this embarrassing book with a dreamy vision that equates the United States with a lava-spewing mountain. "If volcanoes can be beautiful as well as deadly," he writes, "why can't America be wise as well as powerful, generous as well as rich, magnanimous as well as proud?"
Rating: 
Summary: Too far off topic
Review: When I first read the title I was very excited about reading the book, and the firt few paragraphes did not let me down. Alas, the true meat of the book is quite different. Most of the chapters begin with interesting views from foriegners but then digress endlessly into the authors opinions on what is wrong with the American press, the monoism of American political parties, and effects of globalization on the world's poor. All his opinions are valid and many I agree with but no question they belong in another book. When he speaks of and with the foriegners his book and writing shine but his tangents, no matter how well thought, seem misplaced. His project was well formed, but its execution seems misguided. By giving only his opinions on America's place in the world I must confess that he seems no better than the media fundamentalists he attacks.
Rating:
Summary: This is leftist dogma not the informative work it could be.
Review: The stated object of "The Eagle's Shadow" is to educate Americans on how foreigners view us and to inform foreigners on how we Americans see the world. This is a worthy goal, but it seems a mere cover for Mark Hertsgaard to lecture Americans on the environment, consumerism and U.S. Foreign policy. Mr. Hertsgaard has trotted the globe (twice) in his years as a journalist, yet it has only taught him to view America and the world through the prism of dogmatic liberalism. The introduction is more an environmentalist manifesto than it is an overview of what should have been an informative and interesting book. In it he criticizes the Bush administration, especially for its withdrawal from the Kyoto Treaty. Had Mr. Hertsgaard wished to be informative, he might have told us something about the views of the rest of the world on the topic. As it was, he completely avoided conveying any understanding of the economics of the Kyoto Treaty. One reason the U.S. pulled out of the treaty was that it would only create more polution rather than less. On the face of it a rather amazing statement, but a fundemental analysis makes it clear. The treaty allows underdeveloped nations (including China) to pollute more. The U.S. already produces products far more efficiently (and cleanly) than most countries in the world. If suddenly the costs of goods is less expensive when they come from a country that creates more polution per item, where do you think people are going to buy? -- From the country that pollutes more. The Kyoto Treaty, then, rewards polluters and provides incentives to create more pollution. A discussion of the Kyoto Treaty seems out of place in a book about "Why America Fascinates and Infuriates the World". Yet, it is tempting to go into a line by line refutation of all of Mr. Hertsgaard's false assumptions. In some sense it would be futile as it would only end up as a catalogue of the folly of Liberal thought. An illustration of the chaotic and unfulfilling nature of this book can be made by reprinting a few of the notes I scribbled in the margins. "Pie-in the Sky! Alternative Fuels will become popular when they incur less cost than oil. It is as simple as that!" "I find this quite difficult to believe. I think Mr. Hertsgaard is generating facts from spurious sources." "This is silly. Environmentalism is just leftism-extremism in diguise." "He says that we are so certain that we know what is best for everyone, when, in truth, it is the other way around. We generally wish for other people to determine their own lives. I never liked Wilson, but his ideas on national self-determination were right-on." "The Chinese went from Marxist Lunacy to Market Reforms."
"He takes his own "dubious" truths to be self-evident even while criticizing the founders for assuming that the rights to life, liberty and property are self-evident." There are a hundred more, but only a few of my notes were complimentary: "Many of Mr. Hertsgaard's assumtions are pure folly as noted earlier. But he is correct regarding the anti-intellectual streak running through our education system and society at large, keeping us largely ignorant of the goings on in the world. We would to well to rectify this deficiency." Unfortunately, "The Eagle's Shadow: Why America Fascinates and Infuriates the World" does little to rectify this deficiency. If it has any value to the reader, it is as a mildly interesting travelogue and record of the conversations of a liberal with foreigners regarding their views about the United States. This is a subject that would benefit from a book by a serious and less ideological writer.
Rating: 
Summary: Holding up the mirror
Review: While this book could further explore viewpoints of citizens around the world, it does have a powerful and rarely heard message. We Americans really do not perceive the way the rest of the world thinks about us, or even care to consider why they do. Mr Hartsgaard exposes some of the reasons for this pervasive lack of perception. We are spoon fed what the corporate media wants us to hear, and we accept it as the gospel. To question offical policy one is now considered unpatriotic. In the guise of security and patriotism our civil liberties are now being eroded, our environment degraded, and our corporate leaders enriched. It takes courage to go against the current, but some of us want to know what is really going on, even if the answer is not flattering. As the author points out, our country was built on the premise of free speech and expression. A true patriot is someone who cares for our land and is willing to face up to the reality of our position in the world, and the direction we need to move to make it a better place for all. Mark Hertsgaard has held up a mirror for us to look into, but undoubtedly many will not like what they see.
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