The ways in which Europeans have tried to make sense of America constitute a special chapter in the European history of ideas. At first glance what strikes us in the bewildering variety of European readings of America is the recurring attempt to formulate the critical differences that set America apart from the historical experience and cultural conventions of European nations. America is never seen as purely sui generis, as constituting an alien entity to be fathomed in terms of an inner logic wholly its own. Instead, there is always the sense that America is a stray member of a larger family, a descendant from Europe. Since America belongs to the genus of Western civilization, the point is to define the differentia specifica according to an almost Linnaean taxonomy. European conventions have always served as the yardstick, implied or explicit, in European attempts at uncovering the rules of transformation that cut America adrift from the European mainstream. Hardly ever, though, is this intellectual quest for the crucial difference entirely disinterested. More often than not there is an existential urgency in the exploration of the American difference. If Europe serves as the standard for measuring difference, the outcome is always geared to a discussion of America's potential impact on Europe. In other words, there is always a triangulation going on, in the sense that the reflection on America as a counterpoint to European conventions functions within a larger reflection on Europe's history and destiny. If this unduly intellectualizes the repertoire of European views of America, I hasten to say that in addition to the more intellectually articulate versions there are vernacular, or popular, versions. Widely shared and informing everyday conversations, they are more like unreflective stereotypes, providing ready answers to people trying to understand the many Americas that reach them in their daily lives through modern mass communication. Yet we should not exaggerate the difference between the intellectual and the vernacular views of America. At both levels a triangulation takes place, less articulate, perhaps, at the vernacular level, yet similar: popular constructions of America, shared with peer groups, focus on American counterpoints that help Europeans develop individual and group identities different from models and standards prevailing in their home setting. There are other ways in which we can explore the similarities underlying the