Understanding Europeans

The first edition of this work was titled Painted in Blood (LJ 2/15/87), and not much has changed in the new edition. Miller has added a new preface and afterword explaining that the original ideas still apply to post-Communist Europe and in many ways to the rest of the non-American world. Miller contrasts American and European outlooks and behavior, offering anecdotal evidence from his studies and travels, his knowledge of European languages, and his marriage to a Belgian as a foundation for generalizing about the European character. He argues that European thought has been dominated by various concepts of hierarchy, class, gender, family, and so on, while America has been more flexible. Europeans are also more conscious of the value of materials than Americans, who pursue and waste goods more than they value them. The American and European cultures are becoming more similar over time, and the challenge is "to adopt the other's good and leave behind as much of the bad as possible." Recommended for European, American studies, and psychology collections that do not own the first edition.
William R. Smith, Johns Hopkins Univ. Lib., Baltimore
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.