Richard Z. Chesnoff

This is definitely not the book to read if you are already halfway to believing that people are rotten; it will probably push you past the tipping point. It may seem that losing so many lives in the Holocaust pales everything else, so that losing all your money and property is minimal, but the theft detailed in this work is breathtaking in its breadth. So many people, seemingly ordinary, decent people, who left their decency behind when the time came to get a piece of the loot from their neighbors who were sent to Nazi death camps. And when the survivors came home, they came home to nothing. No home, no property, no money, because it had been stolen. That made it difficult for them to move back into the world and try to move forward. And the callous lack of sympathy and compassion for the looted Jews was stunning in its inhumanity. The author has done a lot of work on a difficult, unhappy topic, and is to be commended for the thoroughness of his research, the lucidness of his prose, and the format of the book which made it easy to follow.… (más)

American journalist Chesnoff has lived and worked in France for twenty years. This book is about the history and politics of France, especially as it concerns the U.S. Chesnoff details the three hundred year old relationship between France, Britain and the U.S., from the Revolution up to the time that sparked this book, France's refusal to back the U.S. in the Middle East. He details the decades of France's sales of arms and nuclear equipment to dictators such as Saddam Hussein and finishes with a list of French owned companies, some that surprised me (the Jerry Springer show?) just in case you wanted to boycott them.
He also goes into the French education system, and how it results in the attitude referred to in the title.

Though some aspects of this book were out of date quickly after it's 2005 publication, due to the French elections, the history lesson is thorough and Chesnoff gives plenty of his personal experiences in what it's actually like to be an American Jewish man living in a small French village.
If you adore A Year in Provence or are a hardcore Francophile, you might want to stay away from this book, as it paints a very different picture.… (más)

An excellent and funny work. Chesnoff, who has lived in France for decades, explains why the French and Americans think so differently - and why it is killing the nation of France. The rampant socialism that has "sissified" the French is the source of some of that. Also, they call us a young country so our culture is somehow backwards and young - while they are an old country so everything they do is right. Bullshit. Since 1776 we have had two governments (Articles and Constitution) and they have had about SIXTEEN governments (Bourbon despotism, Constitutional Bourbons, First Republic, National Convention, Directory, Consulate, First Empire, Bourbon Restoration, Orleans Monarchy, Second Republic, Second Empire, Third Republic, Vichy France, Provisional Government, Fourth Republic, and the Fifth Republic) - so don't talk to me about the SUPERIORITY of French government and culture. I could go on and on. Suffice it to say, it is a good book, go get it.… (más)