Anti-Americanism flourishes

However, by the early 20th century, Australia and New Zealand became the preferred New-World models with America being increasingly viewed with suspicion by the European Left. Over time progressives have come to sound more like Old-World conservatives as they regularly criticise Americans for being supposedly ill-informed and living on a diet of junk food and trash culture.

Just like with conservatives a century or so earlier these criticisms often tell us much more about the fears elites hold about their own nation's working class than anything insightful about American culture.

Into the future America will continue to be seen as the root of many cultural evils from retail therapy to rap music. Opponents of these things, however, would be best advised to avoid anti-Americanism and focus directly on the issue that concerns them - be it materialism or sexism.

On the political front, America is likely to elect a more experienced or at least a more articulate president in 2008 who is unlikely to govern promising more of the same. However, the range of current presidential candidates is extremely broad.

A President Rudy Giuliani could be capable of antagonising global opinion as much as Bush, while a President Barack Obama would be an antidote to Bush, who would force people to confront certain assumptions about Americans.

The Iraq debacle will chasten America but not as much as its loss in Vietnam did. America will continue to use force to attack what it thinks are terrorists.

Also, given the current frequency of civil wars and increasing media coverage of events in all corners of the globe, America is likely to be drawn into peacekeeping and peacemaking missions. Because the American military will continue to act beyond its borders, improving the quality of America's foreign policy decisions and the competency of its actions will be crucial to whether the US is seen more favourably in the future.

Thankfully, if the polls continue their trends, it is these decisions that will sway world opinion, not residual and knee-jerk prejudices carried over from the 19th century.

This being the case, the future of anti-Americanism around the globe is largely in the hands of the Americans themselves.