First published 2009
Christopher Caldwell argues that Europe cannot remain the same continent with fundamentally different populations. Over fifty years of mass immigration has failed to create integration similar to America's melting pot. European leaders overestimated their labor needs while underestimating religion's power to shape culture. The continent enforced secularism, tolerance, and equality to enable immigration, but newcomers were not required to embrace these values. Muslims now dominate major cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Strasbourg, Marseille, Paris suburbs, and East London. Islam has become an adversary culture challenging European life at every level. Caldwell examines guest worker programs that outlived their economic purpose, asylum policies serving illegal immigrants over genuine refugees, and welfare systems clashing with Third World customs. He explores how anti-Americanism unites European natives and Muslim newcomers while disputes over women and sexuality divide them. Second generation immigrants prove more alienated than their parents, drawn to sharia, resistance, and jihad. Native Europeans face a crisis of faith that weakens their position when confronting newcomer demands. Assertive immigrant populations now reshape the continent's cultural foundations.
Genres: history, political-science, non-fiction, european-literature, 21st-century, current-affairs
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: adversary-culture, crisis-of-faith, guest-worker-programs
Setting: Amsterdam, East London, Europe, Marseille, Paris, Rotterdam, Strasbourg
Period: 21st Century
432 pages · Hardcover · Doubleday