Anglomania: A European Love Affair

This is simply a delightful book,in which Dutchman Buruma (whose grandparents were German Jews who fled Germany)intertwines his and his family's experiences with England with the experiences of many Anglophiles and Anglophobes. It makes for a very easy, rewarding reading. Buruma talks about many Europeans who loved or hated (and frequently loved and hated at the same time) England. First he deals with that most acute of observers, Voltaire, and his question of why can't the world be more like England?, the land of liberty, the rule of law, tolerance and restraint. Marx, Pevsner, Herzen, Kaiser Wilhelm II and many other politicians, philosophers and artists are portraited here in their relationship with these crucial island.The book is fast, sharp, funny, erudite, full of interesting anecdotes, and most of all a book about ideas and attitudes. it is one of the best books I've read recently and it is totally recommended.

This has to be one of the most delightful books I have read in recent years. When I picked it up, I thought it was going to be about the American obsession with all things British in popular culture. You know, the glut of Jane Austen movies, Masterpiece Theatre, BBC productions, etc. But that's not what this book is about at all. It is a highly refinded examination of European attitudes toward England as found in the writings of politicians, political philosophers, and artists and as reflected in the experiences of Buruma himself.I was thoroughly impressed by Buruma's ease in discussing the political ideologies of the 18th and 19th centuries. I was also particularly delighted to read the chapter that discusses the lives and work of Nikolaus Pevsner and F. A. Hayek, two favorite authors from my college days. Buruma is a lively and engaging writer who is sure to please anyone with the least bit of curiosity about the past and with a love of England and what it represents in its deepest and most profound senses.

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?

It has been a long time since I read a book that I enjoyed so thoroughly. Part European travelogue, Buruma travels from Voltaire's home in Ferney, to Germany, to Holland, and to Great Britain; part philosophical reflection, part history, and part autobiography, Buruma ties together all the strands in a perfectly beautiful bow. Wonderfully written, with unforgettable profiles of major historical and literary figures. "Laughter is Forbidden!" announced the Germans as they produced Shakespeare's plays -- but laughter, tears, and insights are the inevitable outcome of a few hours curled up with "Anglomania: A European Love Affair."

Through the thoughts and perceptions of England from the 17th C. to today by a variety of Europeans who considered themselves Anglophiles, the author measures and comments on the realism or otherwise of their observations. A bookful of interesting visitors to England, some of whom remained to live out their lives there, makes the book a fascinating read. Ranging from Voltaire through Theodore Herzl to Isiaih Berlin and including a Prince "Pickle", we learn how the non-English sought to imitate the natives and pass for them, often enough based on mistaken ideas of their ideal. The original title of the book when published in Britain was "Voltaire's Coconuts". Interesting that the title had to be changed for the US edition. "Anglomania" is a much poorer title, since the subject is not so much anglomania as the view of England by foreigners, remaining surprisingly consistent over time even though the England of the beginning of the book has changed considerably over the past century. The admiration of the Anglophile seems always focussed upon the "English gentleman", aristocratic and not very democratic, existing in a country where freedom and liberal thought provide the counterbalance to despotism and sinister state control, so frequently the lot of Britain's neighbors. In the final two chapters of the book, Buruma observes a country with less liberal, even paranoid voices, when the topic is Europe. Not a pretty sight. And for these so-called defenders of British democracy and sovereignty from European 'demons', sounding like Hitler and his ilk appears to be no contradiction! This is by far the most readably interesting book I have read since Hugo Young's "This Blessed Plot". Come to think of it, the two books should be read as companion volumes!