American Exceptionalism

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A powerful dissection of a core American myth, this work explores the resilient idea that the United States is unique in world history. Ian Tyrrell, a leading historian of American exceptionalism, presents his first focused examination of this concept. He traces the origins of American identity as exceptional to the belief that the early republic was not merely a postcolonial state but a novel experiment in a world dominated by British imperialism. Before the Civil War, American exceptionalism encouraged assertions of cultural, economic, and spatial independence. As the nation expanded and emerged as a global power, its exceptionalist beliefs became increasingly prominent and contentious. A political divide emerged between those who viewed America’s exceptionalism as a source of virtue and those who perceived it as flawed or unexceptional, subject to universal demands for justice. Tyrrell skillfully articulates the various forces that rendered American exceptionalism a divisive and defining concept. He observes that contemporary calls for recognition of America’s exceptionalism have intensified, even as the material and moral evidence supporting that claim has diminished.