Vile France

About this book

French anti-Americanism has recently gotten our attention, and caused an equal and opposite reaction. As Denis Boyles writes in the introduction to Vile France, "What we mistakenly see as a craven, anti-Semitic, hypocritical, hysterically anti-American, selfish, overtaxed, culturally exhausted country bereft of ideas ... is actually worse than all that. It's vile." In this funny and insightful polemic, Boyles, who has lived and worked in France for several years, examines the internal crises--a falling birthrate, an expanding Muslim minority, economic stagnation, a lessening of international prestige--that have changed what was once "La Belle France" into a nation afflicted with status anxiety. He explains how a country that endlessly repeats its credentials as America's oldest ally has become one of our most resolute enemies, wielding the biggest weapon in its arsenal--the European Union--against the interests of an America that it fears and envies.