Vile Betrayer, New Superpower, or Both?

Matt Welch | December 27, 2005

So, how did that whole Fuck-France publishing boomlet go? Not so good, if you risk karmic blowback by looking at Amazon sales rankings. The four main titles to come out in the last two years are not exactly flying off the virtual shelves:

#31,014: Our Oldest Enemy: A History of America's Disastrous Relationship with France, by John J. Miller and Mark Molesky (October 2004).
#111,921: The Arrogance of the French: Why They Can't Stand Us--and Why the Feeling Is Mutual, by Richard Chesnoff (April 2005).
#202,288: The French Betrayal of America, by Kenneth R. Timmerman (March 2004).
#203,729: Vile France: Fear, Duplicity, Cowardice and Cheese, by Denis Boyles (March 2005). (Despite a glowing testimonial from Victor Davis Hanson!)

Compare that to the genre's inverse -- Why Europe Is Gonna Kick Our Ass, Despite Decades of Evidence to the Contrary. The four recent examples of note are faring significantly better:

#10,103: The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream, by Jeremy Rifkin (August 2004).
#16,059: The United States Of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremacy, by T.R. Reid (November 2004).
#59,669: Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century, by Mark Leonard (February 2005).
#182,868: The Next Superpower?: The Rise of Europe and Its Challenge to the United States, by Rockwell A. Schnabel and Francis X. Rocca (September 2005).

Twelve months ago, I argued against the significance of the Transatlantic Rift here.