Results: The Ugly Americans

"Ugly American" is a term used to refer to perceptions of loud, arrogant, demeaning, thoughtless, ignorant, and ethnocentric behavior of American citizens mainly abroad, but also at home. Although the term is usually associated with or applied to travelers and tourists, it also applies to U.S. corporate businesses in the international arena. Have you heard this term before?

The term was used as the title of a 1948 photograph of an American tourist in Havana by the Cuban photographer Constantino Arias but seems to have entered popular culture as the title of a 1958 book by authors William Lederer and Eugene Burdick. In 1963, the book was made into a film directed by George Englund and starring Marlon Brando. Have you seen this movie, read the book or seen this photograph?

Do you agree or disagree that the term "ugly Americans" has never been more applicable than present day?