An American abroad in a post-American world

'Notes on a Foreign Country: An American Abroad in a Post-American World' by Suzy Hansen (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 277 pages, $26)

Suzy Hansen first came to Turkey on a research fellowship in 2007 at the age of 29. Since then she has reported for the New York Times magazine and others, covering Syrian refugees in suburban Istanbul, the deadly Soma industrial disaster, the Erdoğan-Gülen bust up, and the post-coup attempt crackdown. Over that time she has built a reputation as one of the most sophisticated and sensitive reporters on Turkey.

She has also spent much of the time worrying about America's heavy footprint around the world. As described in "Notes on a Foreign Country," when Hansen first came to Turkey she still believed there was an "inherent goodness" to the U.S. "Deep in my consciousness I thought that America was at the end of some evolutionary spectrum of civilization, and everyone else was trying to catch up." 

The book chronicles a steady loss of this innocence. Hansen reflects on her experiences reporting from Turkey and elsewhere. "My years as an American abroad in the 21st century were not a joyous romp or self-discovery and romance, the kind we see in movies; mine were more of a shattering and a shame," she writes. "Once you realize that they way you have looked at the world - the way you viewed your country, your history, your life - has been muddled, you begin a process of shedding layers of skin."

Touted as a book "about an American living abroad in the era of American decline," it appears when many are horrified at the spectacle of the Donald Trump presidency. But Hansen's focus is deeper, addressing U.S. amnesia that goes back decades. Like the subjects of all empires that have come before, ...