Summer Reading: America vs the World

Here’s another summer read for those of you looking for recommendations… America Against The World.

This book takes a numeric survey-based approach to uncovering the myths (and truths) as to how America is different and why America is disliked.

Surveys across multiple years from over 50 countries are used as the basis for the book, and it is rich in numbers, charts and trends – all with the aim of uncovering the real truths about how the world views Americans and how Americans see themselves.

Since many of you who read this blog live or have lived in other lands, you might share my interest as a multi-national into cross-border perceptions. 

Perceptions of the population is a lot like marketing results in the customer base – people believe what they perceive to be true, especially in the more complicated areas where truth may require more extensive study to uncover.

A common theme through the book is the exploration of how America and Americans are “exceptional” – not in the sense of being better, but in being different – like an exceptional piece of data in a given dataset.

A couple of the conclusions put forward by the book about how Americans are not exceptional versus other countries include:

·        Americans are not exceptional in their nationalism

·        Americans are not exceptional in their religion

(Interesting to note is that Europeans are exceptional in this area – not because they are religious, but because they are so non-religious!)

And a couple of areas where Americans are identified as being exceptional include:

·        Americans are exceptional in their lack of interest in foreign affairs

·        Americans are exceptional in their optimism for the future

Although the book might have been a bit too numbers-oriented, it was still an interesting read.

And it is the last example of American exceptionalism that attracts immigrants (like myself!) to come to America to find their fortune – a land where all things are possible.

Including 50% year-on-year growth for a company like PAS – where our own staff come from over a dozen countries ranging from South Africa to the UK and China to India – and all started by someone from Iran!

Go team go!

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