SOURCE: Hollander, Paul. “Reflections on Anti-Americanism in Our Times.” In The Many Faces of Socialism: Comparative Sociology and Politics, pp. 299-311. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Books, 1983.

In the following essay, Hollander characterizes anti-Americanism as one of the most significant cultural, social, and political phenomena of the mid-twentieth century and offers an analysis of the major dimensions of this global happening.

In the course of the last quarter century or so, the United States has become a nearly universal scapegoat symbol. It has been denounced in countless speeches and editorials, on posters, in radio broadcasts, and over television, as well as in private conversations, for the ills of the world, for the problems of particular societies, and even for the unhappiness of individuals. No country has had more hostile demonstrations in front of its embassies around the world, or more of its libraries and cultural missions abroad ransacked...