I love history any history and learning about a foriegn country is enlighting, but the best sources I have found come from the people who have lived there, through thier writings, their voices, their countrymen. Someone from a diffrent culture can observe and record thier observances and this can be informative, but nothing can compare to learing from the source.

It never ceases to amaze me that these Europeans embroiled in the same types problems; crime, poverty, child abuse, ect…can only point to how bad America is. They complain that Americans are reliogus hypocrites, but is not hatefully critzing America while engaging in the same behavior not being a hypocrite?

Proud to be an American. We are not perfect but then again neither is Europe.

I did see the series, and I bought his previous series about the History of Britain. It was harsh and brutal and gave us all a wake up call about our history. It also celebrated what was good about britain, and reminded us that our history, as terrible as it was has brought us to this point.

It is exactly why he named the series about the US.. The American Future: A History.

I dont know a single person who watched it over here, that didnt feel like they understood american issues of racism, faith and politics were far more complex than the had estimated.

He never says, and we dont think we are better than you. Of course we have massive issues with immigration, with law and order, with the justice system, with politics, but were not some backwards banana republic either. Every country has problems, what is so wrong with saying it. And why are you having a go at Simon Schama, who is teaching us brits why you do things the way you do, and maybe we can learn?

The one feeling that worried me the most whilst I was there last time, was the sense that you were never allowed to criticise the US… despite its healthcare issues, despite its immigration and racism issues, despite its social care issues. Any criticism of the US was met with derision, and the attitude of “if you dont like our country, get out”.

In Europe… anywhere you go in Europe, we have the attitude of “if you dont like our country, help us make it better”, forgive me for thinking ours is both more humbling and more productive a belief.

We make documentaries about the US because it is the richest and most powerful nation in the world, and we recognise there is alot we can learn from you.

and knifings here are generally criminals knifing other criminals. However I’m not really for that, i’d prefer it to stop. It must say something about how ingrained violent guncrime is in the US if regular citizens think it is just a normal part of life and that it doesn’t really matter, indeed it is welcome.

The vast majority of knifings are not committed by ‘fascist skinheads’ but by inner city youth gangs consisting of people of various ethnic backgrounds. The ‘fascist skinhead’ tag could probably be applied to some football hooligans but they don’t cause anything like as much violence as 20 or 30 years ago.

Interstingly you say that people are being knifed to death in record numbers. Of the 784 murders in England & Wales during the 2007-08 year, killing with ‘a sharp instrument’ was the most common method with 277 deaths, this has indeed increased by 35% in the past 10 years from 201 in 1998-99.

This rate of knife killing consistently makes headline news in the UK, it is considered shocking and many commenters in the US have picked up on that coverage as evidence of how Britain is a terrible and dangerous place.

What they don’t seem to have picked up on though is that 1,796 people were killed using knives in the USA during 2007. The USA has a population almost 6 times greater than England and Wales and yet has 6.5 times as many knife killings so the rate in the US is actually slightly higher than here.

The US media doesn’t seem concerned by this though and it doesn’t seem to be a major issue over there like it is here. Maybe one reason for this is that the knifings in the UK are the biggest problem when it comes to homicide but in the US, they are totally overshadowed by the vastly higher number of gun killings; 10,086 in the US during 2007 compared to 52 in the whole of England & Wales.

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2007/offenses/expanded_information/data/shrtable_07.html

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/crimeew0708.html

So maybe you might like to take things like that into account before making such comments.

“I will say that happily I have made a few anglophiles into converts by sending them links to stories like this and also the general news items from British news that never make it to the US (but if they had happened in the US would be front page news in Britain), stories such as “couple arrested for raping babies”. Charming britain…”

If you spend your time deliberately trying to convert people to anglophobia by sending them links to news stories then maybe you need to get a hobby or something to occupy your mind more productively.

[sarcasm]Of course, there are no sickos in the US, no serial killers, no rapists, no child abusers, no gangs. Only in depraved Britain could you find such things.[/sarcasm] Feel free to return to reality whenever you like.

Contrary to your claims, I can’t remember a domestic US crime story ever being front-page headline news in the UK unless it had other angles (OJ Simpson, Phil Spector, Katrina, Rodney King riots etc).

Go for it, however bear in mind that most Americans here seem to think that we are actually too nice to those you call “Pakis” and that we should be deporting them, fighting them or slamming them in prison.

lol, ok so that then includes people like John Bolton who are regularly appearing on news programmes on the BBC.

Do you not see how nonsensical and hysterical you are being?