Notes on a Foreign CountryNotes on a Foreign Country
An American Abroad in a post-American World
Title rated 3.75 out of 5 stars, based on 45 ratings(45 ratings)
eBook, 2017
Current format, eBook, 2017, First edition., All copies in use."A revelatory reflection on America's role in the world from the perspective of a young woman who has been living in Istanbul for the past six years"--
"In the wake of the September 11 attacks and the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Suzy Hansen, who grew up in an insular conservative town in New Jersey, was enjoying early success as a journalist for a high-profile New York newspaper. Increasingly, though, the disconnect between the chaos of world events and the response at home took on pressing urgency for her. Seeking to understand the Muslim world that had been reduced to scaremongering headlines, she moved to Istanbul. Hansen arrived there with romantic ideas about a mythical city perched between East and West, and with a naive sense of the Islamic world beyond. Over the course of her many years of living in Turkey and traveling throughout Greece, Egypt, Afghanistan, and Iran, she learned a great deal about these countries and their cultures, histories, and politics. But the greatest, most unsettling surprise would be what she learned about her own country--and herself, an American abroad in the era of America's decline. It would take leaving her home to discover what she came to think of as the two Americas: the country and its people, and the experience of American power around the world. She came to understand that anti-Americanism is not a violent pathology. It is, Hansen writes, "a broken heart ... a hundred-year-old relationship." Blending memoir, journalism, and history, and deeply attuned to the voices of those she met on her travels, Notes on a Foreign Country is a moving reflection on America's place in the world. It is a powerful journey of self-discovery and revelation--a profound reckoning with what it means to be an American in a time of grave national and global turmoil."--Jacket.
"In the wake of the September 11 attacks and the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Suzy Hansen, who grew up in an insular conservative town in New Jersey, was enjoying early success as a journalist for a high-profile New York newspaper. Increasingly, though, the disconnect between the chaos of world events and the response at home took on pressing urgency for her. Seeking to understand the Muslim world that had been reduced to scaremongering headlines, she moved to Istanbul. Hansen arrived there with romantic ideas about a mythical city perched between East and West, and with a naive sense of the Islamic world beyond. Over the course of her many years of living in Turkey and traveling throughout Greece, Egypt, Afghanistan, and Iran, she learned a great deal about these countries and their cultures, histories, and politics. But the greatest, most unsettling surprise would be what she learned about her own country--and herself, an American abroad in the era of America's decline. It would take leaving her home to discover what she came to think of as the two Americas: the country and its people, and the experience of American power around the world. She came to understand that anti-Americanism is not a violent pathology. It is, Hansen writes, "a broken heart ... a hundred-year-old relationship." Blending memoir, journalism, and history, and deeply attuned to the voices of those she met on her travels, Notes on a Foreign Country is a moving reflection on America's place in the world. It is a powerful journey of self-discovery and revelation--a profound reckoning with what it means to be an American in a time of grave national and global turmoil."--Jacket.
Title availability
About
Subject and genre
Details
Publication
- New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017., ©2017
Opinion
More from the community
Community lists featuring this title
There are no community lists featuring this title
Community contributions
There are no quotations from this title
There are no quotations from this title
From the community