Europeans Talk About Europe

Author: Hartmut Kaelble
Publisher: Zuoyan
Publish Date: 2005-10-01
Features: In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Europeans traveling to America gradually had this feeling: "I have a very special experience in America. I have seen Europe for the first time. I always thought the concept of 'Europe' could only be understood geographically, but it turned out that there really was a European society." Early on, the geographical region of "Europe" was merely a scattering of various nation-states, without the contours of "Europe" yet formed. However, in the prosperous 19th and early 20th centuries of nationalism, it gradually nurtured a different kind of thinking about its future, distinct from nationalism—that is, viewing "Europe" as a whole. The author meticulously analyzes this conceptual shift, including the early European "sense of superiority," the "inferiority complex" compared to Americans in the early 20th century and during the two World Wars, and the renewed European confidence in the 1950s and 1960s. Although this is a book of discourse, the author uses extensive travel writing, observing the experiences of Europeans traveling between the Atlantic, laying out for readers the subtle complaints, frustrations, or arrogant pride of the time. For example, something as simple as "America has better hygiene: clean towels every day, two packages of soap in the bathroom every night" would bring a sense of disappointment to Europeans.
The book compares the United States and Europe from a very broad perspective, covering parent-child relationships, family structures, taste in clothing, gender interactions, social norms, temperament, publishing markets, bathroom facilities, parks and green spaces, urban planning, work ethics, labor-capital relations, business efficiency, transportation, and even political issues and concrete political actions that gradually emerged in the 20th century, such as the European Union. Today, the development of the European Union seems unstoppable, but do Europeans also identify with this expanding alliance? The author, both a scholar and an insider, portrays the historical development of European self-awareness in the 19th and 20th centuries from an insider's perspective and presents how the current European identity was formed amid the crises of war and post-war. Even in the 1950s, Europeans faced such crises: "We watch American movies, smoke, eat American food, teenagers chew gum, women's fashion becomes less conventional, wearing American makeup, gas stations sprout up like mushrooms at intersections, as planned by America, serving American cars, dancing to American music, American phrases become popular everywhere, gradually eroding our language. We Europeans realize that we are being gradually conquered by American civilization."
However, at the same time, some Europeans were indifferent and sought to compete with America, believing, "Europe's creativity is still stronger than America's. Americans build admirable museums, but they are filled with European works. Even in contemporary art, Europe still inherently retains its prestige. Of course, America has talented musicians, sculptors, and painters, but these artists themselves regard Europeans as the standard." Some Europeans, upon arriving in the American continent, shifted from disappointment to amazement. "The newcomers to Europe had an initial impression of American cities as 'terrible.' I wrote in my diary: 'Various types of houses are mixed together, many with ugly, outward-facing iron ladders for fire safety, dirty, low-quality paving stones; streets intersect at right angles, straight, and if you look both ways, they seem to lead into the void, as if directly toward the sky. Long roads stretch endlessly, disappearing into the distant haze. Then, I began to feel amazed, transforming from amazement to wonder—though it was somewhat contradictory—and then as if I were captivated. This American freedom, this aggressive, unrestrained spirit of action, this reckless, indifferent, unbound temperament—these were the unique attractions of the city, even those who resisted it were drawn in and infected.'"
Some Europeans adopted an inclusive attitude toward other cultures, avoiding potential frustrations: "We have also discovered the necessary tolerance. We no longer judge people outside our borders as we wish but see them as they truly are. So, while retaining our interest in other nations' economies, politics, and humanity, we no longer have to experience disappointment and failure." How did America impact Europeans? How did Europeans, in a weakened position, find new self-identity and repair their wounded confidence? "This period of crisis in European self-awareness was also the birth of modern European self-awareness—even though this awareness was initially vague. It was a golden period for the European unification plan, and later became a turning point toward today's European integration."