The Adventure of English, page 286, reads "The Americans are more polite about the English than the English are about Americans"
I wouldn't use the definite article before "Americans" in this sentence, and I can't understand why it is used at the beginning of the sentence but not at the end. Are both cases correct (using and omitting)?
For clarity: the sentence is the beginning of a paragraph that goes on: .... "The British feared that "their" English had been taken from them; that its new owners were not looking after it as deserved; and a deeper fear that they were at the cutting edge now: it was not the British who propelled the adventure.