Anglomania: A European Love Affair Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

Anglomania: A European Love Affair Book

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.ukRead More

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  • Product Description

    "Imaginative, original--wittily written."--The Washington Post Book World

    To 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 To others, it is a moribund bastion of snobbery and outdated tradition.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.

  • 0375705368
  • 9780375705366
  • Ian Buruma
  • 1 April 2000
  • Vintage Books USA
  • Paperback (Book)
  • 320
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