"Why Do People Hate America?" by Ziauddin Sardar and Merryl Wyn Davies, The Disinformation Company, 240 pages, $11

One of the first and most authentic responses to the events of September 11 was that of a panic-stricken woman fleeing as the Twin Towers collapsed in New York. In shock, she asked the reporter who held a microphone out to her: "Why do they hate us?"

That question, etched in the collective consciousness of America and the world, and subsequently appropriated by President George Bush and his administration, is the point of departure of this book, which has now been translated into Hebrew by Maya Feld (Maariv/Iyun). However, from the perspective of the authors - Ziauddin Sardar, a Pakistani-born intellectual who lives and works in the United States, but does not consider himself an American, and Merryl Wyn Davies, a Welsh author and anthropologist who lives in Wales, but does not consider herself British - the question is totally superfluous. Both of them easily fit into the radical, multicultural, postmodern, anti-globalist, long-time-haters-of-America category. Their careers have been built on books, articles, interviews, lectures, radio and television programs, and seminars at leading American universities, the common denominator being virulent criticism of the United States and all it represents.

In effect, then, the book should have been called "Why Do Radical Intellectuals Hate America?" or "Why Do Sardar and Davies Hate America?" It is a concise, forcefully argued summation of all the debates on the subject that have been raging on campuses and research institutes in the West, and especially the United States, for the last 30 years. It is even readable. Its importance, however,

lies in bringing to light what the intellectual elites in the social science and humanities faculties of the West are thinking. It has also enjoyed a large measure of success, topping best-seller lists around the world. [more]