Have a Nice Day - Hardcover

Webb, Justin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 190602152X ISBN 13: 9781906021528

Publisher: Short Books Ltd, 2008

Synopsis

This title is about the real America: a nation more misunderstood than any other on Earth. It is a counter-blast to the lazy anti-Americanism that infects European thinking, an effort to answer the simple question, 'why is America so successful?'.

About this title

Review:

"If you want to know what makes Americans tick, read this book. Webb knows America - and it shows." -- John Humphrys

"Not since Charles Wheeler has the BBC had as fine an American correspondent. His perceptive reporting has been a joy." -- The Times

"... the literary equivalent of cracking open a six pack of Budweiser and arguing late into the night..." -- The Observer

"With his forensic examination of America, and more importantly, of Americans, Justin Webb represents 21st-century proof that no-one understands the world so adroitly as the Englishman abroad." -- Simon Calder, Travel Editor, The Independent

From the Publisher:

"If you love America and this love has dared not speak its name in recent years, my book is intended to give you ammunition with which to do battle on behalf of the Yanks. But if you hate America, or think that you might, or have a friend who does, please at least give me a chance to change your mind."

With those words the BBC North America Editor Justin Webb asks us to reconsider our view of the United States.

He begins in Bath where he was brought up and where his late mother Gloria Webb was a prominent member of the Religious Society of Friends, the Quakers. Justin's mother was politically active and used to take him on protests with her friends. He writes,

"They were good people, thoughtful and peaceful. But as I grew older I began to notice something rather odd about their pet causes. Their heartfelt protests against nuclear weapons, for instance, concentrated on American warheads, not the Soviet missiles in those days pointed directly at us. When they campaigned against war, it was American led war they abhorred. Against executions? In Texas of course ...... In other words the anti-American mindset was alive and well long before the current president stoked its engine. Why? Where does anti-Americanism come from? Is it about what America does or what America is? And if it is the latter, is the dislike based on real knowledge, or on misunderstanding?"

To find out, Justin takes us on a journey which begins in Bath but leads to some of the wellsprings of anti-Americanism, ancient and modern: France Egypt and Venezuela. We turn then to America; to the creationist museum in Kentucky, to the mountains of West Virginia, to the largely Latino city of San Antonio in Texas, to the living rooms of the gentle political junkies of Iowa, and to the vexed and hugely significant question, "who is The (modern) Virginian."

The result is a friendly argument with anti-Americanism and an affectionate though critical portrait of a nation that demands of the world, Have a Nice Day!

About this edition

• Publisher: Short Books Ltd
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 190602152X
• ISBN 13: 9781906021528
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288