American Exceptionalism
American exceptionalism is a political theory that posits the United States as a unique nation, distinguished by its commitment to democracy, liberty, and self-governance. This concept has historical roots, tracing back to early settlers like John Winthrop, who envisioned America as a "city upon a hill," symbolizing a model for the world. The term gained further prominence through the observations of French writer Alexis de Tocqueville, who noted the American dedication to practicality and democracy. Interestingly, the phrase "American exceptionalism" was coined by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, who criticized the U.S. for its steadfast adherence to capitalism during a time when many nations were turning to communism.
In contemporary discourse, American exceptionalism is often invoked by politicians to evoke pride in the nation’s values and role on the global stage. However, it has also sparked criticism, with detractors arguing that it fosters an egocentric worldview and a misguided sense of immunity from international norms. In the early twenty-first century, figures like Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama have referenced the idea, highlighting its enduring influence in American politics. Despite its contentious nature, the belief in American exceptionalism continues to resonate, reflecting the complexities of national identity and pride.
American Exceptionalism
American exceptionalism is a political theory asserting that the United States is unique among all other nations in its devotion to democracy, liberty, and self-government. The proposition uses idealistic language to claim that the United States has been a special nation since its founding. Phrases such as "shining city on a hill" and "beacon to the world" are often used to describe the allegedly extraordinary place the United States holds in world affairs. The idea of American exceptionalism is frequently promoted by politicians, though many critics of the theory have dismissed it as egocentric.
History of the Theory
The concept and wording of the theory of American exceptionalism have been attributed to multiple sources over many years. These principally include nineteenth-century French writer Alexis de Tocqueville and twentieth-century dictator of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin. However, the notion of America being a special place among all other nations, in fact, dates back to the European settling of the American colonies in the early 1600s. The idea continued to appear periodically over the next several centuries.
Massachusetts Bay Colony
English Puritan lawyer and settler John Winthrop is one of the first individuals recorded to have believed the habitation of America was special. In 1630, while sailing across the Atlantic Ocean to what would soon become the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Winthrop told his companions to act like "a city upon a hill." This was because Winthrop believed the world was watching and waiting for them to settle this New World of America.
Thomas Paine
The eighteenth-century English writer Thomas Paine also described America as an exceptional civilization in his 1776 pamphlet Common Sense. Paine, who had relocated to the colonies and supported the American Revolution, likened freedom to a fugitive who had been hunted and abused around the world. While Asia, Africa, and Europe had rejected freedom, Paine wrote, America prepared a place for it to rest.
Alexis De Tocqueville
In his 1835 travelogue Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville made what would become his famous contribution to the idea of American exceptionalism despite never actually employing that phrase. In his work, de Tocqueville meditated on his travels in the United States several years earlier by claiming that the American people occupied an exceptional position among all other peoples of the world.
The generally accepted interpretation of de Tocqueville’s line is that he believed America was exceptional simply for its dedication to practicality over useless ventures such as art and aristocracy. To de Tocqueville, the fact that the United States embraced democracy rather than the arrogant class-based institutions of Europe made the nation unique. Therefore, many historians reject de Tocqueville’s quote as establishing the modern-day concept of American exceptionalism.
Joseph Stalin
The actual inventor of the term American exceptionalism was Joseph Stalin, the Communist dictator of the Soviet Union from the 1920s to his death in the 1950s. He coined the phrase in 1929 when much of the world was suffering from the overwhelming economic troubles of the Great Depression.
At this time, poverty severely divided the societies of Europe, with the poor masses becoming bitter and angry at the wealthy classes for holding most of the money. As a result, many European countries began upholding communism as a means of restoring social equality. Communism is an economic and social system in which all members of a society own the means of production and share equally in the profits. The United States, however, supported no such communist changes.
Although Americans also were hit hard by the Depression, they held loyalty to their economic system of capitalism, in which individuals make as much personal profit as they can from their own labors. The refusal of the United States to join the world’s growing communist movement angered Stalin. To him, communism was meant to be universally appealing, and the United States was resisting.
Stalin referred negatively to this resistance as American exceptionalism. He did not mean to suggest the United States was superior to all other nations. Rather, he was criticizing the American people for believing they were different from the rest of the world with their stubborn support of capitalism and individualism and their acceptance of economic inequality.
For the American people, American exceptionalism meant the opposite of Stalin’s definition. To them, the United States was indeed exceptional in its commitments to capitalism, personal liberty, and justice for all. These ideas were fused into the fabric of American society, Americans believed, and they were the reason the United States remained the greatest and most powerful nation in the world. For the rest of the twentieth century, presidents from John F. Kennedy to Ronald Reagan used lofty language to describe the special status the United States held as a stronghold of freedom for the entire world.
Modern American Exceptionalism
In the early twenty-first century, the term American exceptionalism was used mostly by politicians and political experts projecting majestic images of the United States to the American people.
In 2004, aligning with the modern definition of the phrase, President George W. Bush declared that America had been called by unearthly forces to represent freedom for the rest of the world. In 2009, President Barack Obama became the first American president to use the phrase American exceptionalism, though he admitted that most other countries around the world also believed in their own exceptionalism. In the months leading up to the 2012 presidential election, the term was used most famously by Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich to emphasize what they saw as the greatness of America. In 2024, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris referenced American exceptionalism in her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention and Vivek Ramaswamy, former 2024 Republican presidential candidate, referenced a revival of American exceptionalism in a campaign speech.
Politicians’ appeals to American exceptionalism were often criticized by the media. These criticisms included the claims that Americans had no reason to think of themselves as unique in their love of freedom and that American exceptionalism had led to American exceptionalism, or the belief that the United States was exempt from following the international protocols that guided all other countries.
In the twenty-first century, the use of the phrase American exceptionalism continued to generate controversy among those who found it inappropriate. Nevertheless, many politicians and other public figures still referenced the concept to highlight the perceived extraordinary political and social nature of the United States.
Bibliography
Friedman, Uri. "‘American Exceptionalism’: A Short History." Foreign Policy Magazine, 18 June 2012, foreignpolicy.com/2012/06/18/american-exceptionalism-a-short-history. Accessed 6 Jan. 2025.
McCoy, Terrence. "How Joseph Stalin Invented ‘American Exceptionalism.’" The Atlantic, 15 Mar. 2012, www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/03/how-joseph-stalin-invented-american-exceptionalism/254534. Accessed 6 Jan. 2025.
Stengel, Richard. “Kamala Harris Redefines ‘American Exceptionalism’ for a New Generation of Voters.” Time, 29 Aug. 2024, time.com/7015394/american-exceptionalism-kamala-harris-trump. Accessed 6 Jan. 2025.