This article focuses on political image of the United States. The European image of the United States was very schematic during the first half-century of its independence; it became considerably blurred later, mainly after the Civil War, but American isolationism made this comparatively harmless and immaterial. Until a few decades ago the United States was a closed space, within which a new, powerful country was being made and a new way of life attempted. Meanwhile, people abroad are dealing with the United States in terms of their image of it, though this may bear little resemblance to an American's idea of himself and his country, or, for that matter, to that of other foreigners.
