The narcissism of minor differences : how America and Europe are alike : an essay in numbers
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Bibliographic Information
The narcissism of minor differences : how America and Europe are alike : an essay in numbers
Oxford University Press, 2009
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Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
There is much heated rhetoric about the widening gulf between Europe and America. According to the American right, Europeans are lazy, defeatist and irreligious, while Americans are entrepreneurial, optimistic, and pious. And according to Europeans, America is harsh, dominated by the market, crime-ridden, violent, and sharp-elbowed.
But are the US and Europe so different? Peter Baldwin, one of the world's leading historians of comparative social policy, thinks not, and in this bracingly argued but remarkably informed polemic, he lays out how similar the two continents really are. Drawing on the latest evidence from sources such as the United Nations, the World Bank, IMF, and other international organizations, Baldwin offers a fascinating comparison of the United States and Europe, looking at the latest statistics
on the economy, crime, health care, education and culture, religion, the environment, and much more. It is a book filled with surprising revelations. For most categories of crime, for instance, America is safe and peaceful by European standards. But the biggest surprise is that, though there are many
differences between America and Europe, in almost all cases, these differences are no greater than the differences among European nations. Europe and the US are, in fact, part of a common, big-tent grouping. America is not Sweden, for sure. But nor is Italy Sweden, nor France, nor even Germany. And who says that Sweden is Europe? Anymore than Vermont is America?
Writing with flair and armed with an impressive stock of evidence, Baldwin paints a truly eye-opening portrait of Europe and America. Anyone interested in American foreign relations-or simply curious about American and European society-will want to read this revelatory volume.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1: The Economy
2: Health Care
3: The Rest of the Welfare State
4: Crime
5: More Broadly
6: Education and the Higher Pursuits
7: The Environment
8: Civil Society
9: Nationalism
10: Religion and Science
11: Assimilation
12: Lumping and Splitting
13: A Meeting of the Twain?
14: Separated at Birth?
15: The Post-Facto State
16: How the West Was One
17: Acorn and Oak
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