There was a political article (try to ignore the political part) about when the phrase "American exceptionalism" was coined. The article says that while many say it was coined by liberal political scientist Louis Hartz in the 1950s, the concept of "exceptionalism" has been around since the 1800s, having been used by Alexis de Tocqueville.
It seems like a patriotism to me. Does anyone here know anything more about it?
American exceptionalism refers to the theory that the United States is qualitatively different from other countries. In this view, America's exceptionalism stems from its emergence from a revolution, becoming "the first new nation,"[1] and developing a uniquely American ideology, based on liberty, egalitarianism, individualism, populism and laissez-faire. This observation can be traced to Alexis de Tocqueville, the first writer to describe the United States as "exceptional" in 1831 and 1840.
The specific term "American exceptionalism" was first used in 1929 by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin chastising members of the Lovestone-led faction of the American Communist Party for the heretical, according to Stalin, belief that America was independent of the Marxist laws of history "thanks to its natural resources, industrial capacity, and absence of rigid class distinctions
The French writer Alexis de Tocqueville first wrote about it in his 1831 work, Democracy in America:[12]
The position of the Americans is therefore quite exceptional, and it may be believed that no democratic people will ever be placed in a similar one.
That was your post, Tinman, way back then. How fun!
I find the "qualitatively different from other countries" to be arrogant. I agree with Obama's statement:
quote:
"I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism," he said, before reiterating that his belief came from the values enshrined in the Constitution, including free speech and equality.
So hard to ignore the political aspect! I hate the way this phrase, dating back to a 19th century French historian, has been co-opted by the extreme right!
Wordmatic
Posts: 1390 | Location: Near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Another term, Manifest Destiny, is associated with the USA. Put in modern biological terms, it might mean the capacity to out-compete others in a given ecosystem. Exceptionalism, from my point of view, stems form this country's NOT being homogeneous, thereby selecting the most efficient traits of all of the contributing peoples.
It was fortuitous that the UK and France were at war at our founding, since it was essentially French ideas at the core of our Constitution, contravening the English idea of government, thereby making intellectual revolution the precursor to political revolution.
It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. -J. Krishnamurti
You are right about that, Geoff, and after reading the thread about "recalcitrant," I'm thinking use of that word is not arrogant at all, but belief in one's nation's "exceptionalism" is actually quite arrogant. I say that with no plan or thought of ever running for public office. It's terrible what contortions politicians must go through to become acceptable to an insane electorate!
Wordmatic
Posts: 1390 | Location: Near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Originally posted by Geoff: It was fortuitous that the UK and France were at war at our founding, since it was essentially French ideas at the core of our Constitution, contravening the English idea of government, thereby making intellectual revolution the precursor to political revolution.
This is very interesting, Geoff, tell me more!(History dummy here) I had to read up & see that England was at war 1770-1780 first w/France, then also Holland & Spain, who supported our independence. So we were 'fortunate' because alone against England we couldn't have made it. But what are the French ideas that contravened English idea of government (democracy?), &I don't quite understand 'intellectual revolution the precursor to political revolution'. I'd always thought (in a muddy sort of way) that England's intellectual theories (reflected in Magna Carta) led inevitably to big changes from within, & would like to know more about how French ideas fit in there.
Posts: 2605 | Location: As they say at 101.5FM: Not New York... Not Philadelphia... PROUD TO BE NEW JERSEY!
While I certainly overgeneralize, I think it was Montescieu's ideas of ideal government That mostly influenced our founders WRT the form our government should take. That's not to denigrate both English and Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, who, IMHO, were the "mechanics" of our new nation, but its philosophy of government was mostly French. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/montesquieu/ A good book on how the Scottish Enlightenment led to our university system _ and, ironically, current fundamentalist fanaticism, is to be found here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/...ted_the_Modern_World Keep in mind that while Jefferson and Franklin spent lots of time in France, Jefferson, and many of our other founders, were Scots.
It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. -J. Krishnamurti
I recently heard a good discussion on NPR about exceptionalism, but I can't find it online. There is one from 2008 , but clearly the one I heard was different. The one I heard talks about Joseph Stalin making the use of exceptionalism for the U.S. more common. Here is a quote from the Wikipedia article that Tinman linked to above:
quote:
The term "American exceptionalism" has been in use since at least the 1920s and saw more common use after Soviet leader Joseph Stalin chastised members of the Jay Lovestone-led faction of the American Communist Party for their heretical belief that America was independent of the Marxist laws of history "thanks to its natural resources, industrial capacity, and absence of rigid class distinctions". American Communists started using the English term "American exceptionalism" in factional fights. It then moved into general use among intellectuals.
How funny that it was used by American Communists!
By the way, it's sad to see Wordmatic's post in this thread. That was about a month before she died.
Bertrand Russell, I believe, had a humorous essay about the similarities between the Communist Party and the Catholic Church. This is a sort of secularization similar to how kosher is used in English outside its original religious, Jewish context.
Well, as I said above, my source, NPR, only said that the Stalin/Lovestone exchange popularized the phrase. The report on NPR gave credit to de Tocqueville for coining the expression. Indeed, that NPR report was quite similar to Ben Zimmer's on Language Log.
