The Ugly American

by Eugene Burdick and William J. Lederer

Book Overview

In the episode that lends the book its title, the "ugly American" is Homer Atkins, a plain and plain-spoken man, who has been sent by the U.S. government to advise the Southeast Asian country of Sarkhan on engineering projects. When Atkins finds badly misplaced priorities and bluntly challenges the entrenched interests, he lays bare a foreign policy gone dangerously wrong.

First published in 1958, The Ugly American became a runaway national...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393318672
• ISBN13: 9780393318678
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 285 Pages
• Weight: 0.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

must read

inspirational, everyone needs a reminder of how they come across when in a new environment.

Entertaining, timely, and scathing critique

The Ugly American succeeds on three major counts:1) The book is a devastating look at the way the American diplomatic corps presents itself abroad. It may have been written decades ago, but given recent events and little evidence that anything has changed in the State Department, the lessons are still extremely applicable to this day. Every foreign service officer should read this as a manual on how to conduct themselves and adapt to foreign cultures.2) The authors are clearly cutting into American policy without going overboard and cutting into the United States. This is no anti-American rant; Lederer and Burdick seem to write this book with one eye firmly on furthering America's ability to advance its interests and cooperate more effectively with other nations.3) Each one of the short stories is extremely entertaining. I started this book at 10 pm one night and finished it three hours later after being totally unable to put it down. On top of its commentary, it's a quick and fascinating read.

Getting it right!

The Ugly American was published in 1958, just after the Soviets put Sputnik in orbit and sent America into a deep funk. The book is as interesting for its idealized picture of communist accomplishments in foreign relations as it is for the dreary picture of Americans abroad. The authors attribute high quality training and patient well thought out policies to the Soviets. The American don't speak the language. The Americans don't understand the culture. The Americans are incapable of winning hearts or helping people. That was the mood in 1958. The Soviets had won the race to space and caused us as a nation to doubt our system of education, our ability to understand the world, and our instruments of diplomacy. The people working for the State Department in this book spend most of their time taking care of themselves (first class all the way), and the rest taking care of visitors from Washington (BS all the way). Now, in the post 9/11 world, the Ugly American is worth a fresh look. Are we going to do as poor a job in the Arab world as we did in Southeast Asia nearly 50 years ago. Do we speak Arabic? Are we spending the time and effort learning about the culture, needs and dreams of the people in that part of the world. Is there a hope we can get it right this time? The Ugly American is an important book for us now.

Easy to read - almost impossible to forget.

The Ugly American is a collection of about 20 fictional short stories based in Asia after World War II, when communism was a gaining momentum in the region. The stories, however, are based on factual experiences of the authors in South East-Asia and some of the characters are also based on real people.Each tale is an enchanting story. The characterization is wonderful and the lessons of cultural sensitivity - or lack of it - are valuable. You could also use parts of the book as anecdotes for teaching leadership, but it is not a textbook; read it to enjoy it and you can have the "food for thought" as a bonus. Americans should not be put off by the title as the main character is far from ugly and people from other nations are also shown to be "ugly", for example, some of the French in Vietnam. Also, as the authors are American, they did not intend the title to be a slur.Trivia FYI: Universal made a movie from the book, staring Marlon Brando, in the 1960s.

Enlightening and enduring view of Americans abroad

I read this book in the 60s as a student and was appalled at the behavior of Americans abroad - sad but true. I reintroduced this book in an International marketing class last year in order to get students to think about our American image today: have we improved or is the image in the book of an "ugly American" alive and well? The overwhelming view is that we are still acting and being perceived as arrogant, prejudiced and superior. While some institutions are providing assistance and encouragement in language learning and cultural awareness, the common American still believes in "we do it best" and why shouldn't the rest of the world behave like us?" Clearly, there are many individuals with an awareness and respect for many cultures and traditions; many individuals learn other languages. Bottom line, this book is as relevant in 98 as it was in 58. Every student has commented positively about the book and the book has clearly left an impression on all of them. Hopefully, we have created an awareness of our need to be more respectful of others and recognize that we do live in a global environment. I would really like to talk to the authors today and see what they think.