Synopses & Reviews
What does it mean to be an American, and what can America be today? To answer these questions, celebrated philosopher and journalist Bernard-Henri Lévy spent a year traveling throughout the country in the footsteps of another great Frenchman, Alexis de Tocqueville, whose
Democracy in America remains the most influential book ever written about our country.
The result is American Vertigo, a fascinating, wholly fresh look at a country we sometimes only think we know. From Rikers Island to Chicago mega-churches, from Muslim communities in Detroit to an Amish enclave in Iowa, Lévy investigates issues at the heart of our democracy: the special nature of American patriotism, the coexistence of freedom and religion (including the religion of baseball), the prison system, the "return of ideology" and the health of our political institutions, and much more. He revisits and updates Tocqueville's most important beliefs, such as the dangers posed by "the tyranny of the majority," explores what Europe and America have to learn from each other, and interprets what he sees with a novelist's eye and a philosopher's depth.
Through powerful interview-based portraits across the spectrum of the American people, from prison guards to clergymen, from Norman Mailer to Barack Obama, from Sharon Stone to Richard Holbrooke, Lévy fills his book with a tapestry of American voicessome wise, some shocking. Both the grandeur and the hellish dimensions of American life are unflinchingly explored. And big themes emerge throughout, from the crucial choices America faces today to the underlying reality that, unlike the "Old World," America remains the fulfillment of the world's desire to worship, earn, and live as one wishes a place, despite all, where inclusion remains not just an ideal but an actual practice.
At a time when Americans are anxious about how the world perceives them and, indeed, keen to make sense of themselves, a brilliant and sympathetic foreign observer has arrived to help us begin a new conversation about the meaning of America.
Review
"Bernard-Henry Lévy does nothing that goes unnoticed. He is an intellectual adventurer who brings publicity to unfashionable political causes." The New York Times
Review
"[Lévy] provides fascinating vignettes....The result is an engaging but often-disturbing portrait of our nation from an eloquent, brutally honest foreigner who wishes our country well." Booklist
Review
"Lévy's writing has always been an arms race between shrewd observation and rapt self-absorption, but that's not the only problem here....Lévy's hortatory prose seethes with provocation and paradox; the trouble is that so many of his observations are so stale and predictable." The New Yorker
Review
"Those sharing Levy's politics will find comfort in his analysis; others will be dismayed by his banal observations and tiresome predictability." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"[A] wide-ranging exploration....Many readers may feel more vertigo from his shoot-from-the-hip commentary than Lévy himself experienced in his travels." Library Journal
Review
"A vibrant and rollicking travelogue....If you can stomach a few sucker punches, American Vertigo has its gems. Lévy ends the book with a critical but fair view of the US, one that even the most patriotic reader can appreciate." The Christian Science Monitor
Review
"It's been said that Lévy writes fast and publishes his work unedited. American Vertigo could have benefited from a more considered presentation." The Oregonian (Portland, OR)
Review
"Lévy's American Vertigo is blessed and cursed by its own dizzy complexity. At turns, it's obvious, obtuse and insightful....If scale is a problem, how about the size of some of Lévy's sentences? They're constructed as if ideas and words were colliding bumper-cars." USA Today
Review
"There's no reason for it to exist in English, except as evidence that travel need not be broadening and one should be wary of books with Tocqueville in the title." Garrison Keillor, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"The convoluted style...cannot be blamed on the translator alone. In many instances, the English version faithfully reflects the bombast of the original. Lévy never uses one word when ten will do, and repeats them....Instead of giving a feel for a place or an institution through subtle details, Lévy numbs his readers with hyperbole." Henri Astier, The Times Literary Supplement (read the entire TLS review)
Synopsis
What does it mean to be an American, and what can America be today?
To answer these questions, celebrated philosopher and journalist Bernard-Henri Levy spent a year traveling throughout the country in the footsteps of another great Frenchman, Alexis de Tocqueville, whose Democracy in America remains the most influential book ever written about our country.
The result is
American Vertigo, a fascinating, wholly fresh look at a country we sometimes only think we know. From Rikers Island to Chicago mega-churches, from Muslim communities in Detroit to an Amish enclave in Iowa, Levy investigates issues at the heart of our democracy: the special nature of American patriotism, the coexistence of freedom and religion (including the religion of baseball), the prison system, the "return of ideology" and the health of our political institutions, and much more. He revisits and updates Tocqueville's most important beliefs, such as the dangers posed by "the tyranny of the majority," explores what Europe and America have to learn from each other, and interprets what he sees with a novelist's eye and a philosopher's depth.
Through powerful interview-based portraits across the spectrum of the American people, from prison guards to clergymen, from Norman Mailer to Barack Obama, from Sharon Stone to Richard Holbrooke, Levy fills his book with a tapestry of American voices-some wise, some shocking. Both the grandeur and the hellish dimensions of American life are unflinchingly explored. And big themes emerge throughout, from the crucial choices America
faces today to the underlying reality that, unlike the "Old World," America remains the fulfillment of the world's desire to worship, earn, and live as one wishes-a place, despite all, where inclusion remains not just an ideal but an actual practice.
At a time when Americans are anxious about how the world perceives them and, indeed, keen to make sense of themselves, a brilliant and sympathetic foreign observer has arrived to help us begin a new conversation about the meaning of America.
From the Hardcover edition.
Synopsis
France's leading writer travels the country to discover what it means to be an American, and what America can be, at the dawn of the 21st century.
About the Author
Bernard-Henry Lévy is a philosopher, journalist, activist, and filmmaker. He was hailed by Vanity Fair magazine as "Superman and prophet: we have no equivalent in the United States." Among his dozens of books are Barbarism with a Human Face and Who Killed Daniel Pearl? His writing has appeared in a wide range of publications throughout Europe and the United States. His films include the documentaries Bosna! and A Day in the Death of Sarajevo. Lévy is co-founder of the antiracist group SOS Racism and has served on diplomatic missions for the French government.