Advice for Americans visiting Europe - by Jayne Clark
The Ugly American rap slapped on many U.S. travelers abroad has less to do with appearance (the enduring popularity of those his 'n' her tracksuits favored by many a trans-Atlantic flier notwithstanding) as it does with cultural ignorance. "What Every American Should Know About Europe" by Melissa Rossi (Plume, $16) seeks to wise up those Americans who are considering a trip across the pond. The book is a revision of her 2005 "The Armchair Diplomat on Europe" written with the notion that many Europeans themselves were uninformed about the influence of the European Union.
Part tutorial, part guidebook and part trivia compendium, "What Every American Should Know" offers a country-by-country breakdown of "old Europe" (the 15 Western European nations that made up the EU before 2004) and "new Europe," composed of the 10 Eastern European countries admitted since then. Though it has been updated and reworked for an American audience, it's already a tad outdated given that Bulgaria and Romania, which didn't make it into the book, just became the 26th and 27th members of the EU.
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