American Exceptionalism On the first day of class, I wasn’t so sure what the term “American Exceptionalism” meant, but by the end I have figured it out. American Exceptionalism is the notion that America is uniquely different from the other nations. The reason America is “uniquely different” from the other nations is because, the world expects America to lead, have values, pursue freedom, be diverse and open, and also practice democracy. Being a democratic nation makes us the city upon the hill. America is like a big brother, other nations look to us for help, guidance, and prosperity. The values and beliefs about politics and the government shape our American culture. The stress on a distinct national identity is appropriate within an increasingly diverse nation state and ever globalizing world. I agree upon this statement, because America deserves to be known as the “it” nation. America is more accepting, we are like a melting pot of different cultures and ethnicities. At first, we were a nation of immigrants that prospered in a way that people have never seen. America is known as the land of opportunity, we have innovativeness, and when you really work hard you can definitely make a change for yourself. Turner coins American development by the westward movement. Moving west, and tapping the resources given to us is what made us different. Turner’s thesis is, “The existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward, explain[s] American development. The idea that success came from moving west. This idea wraps up how America became the nation to be. From the movie episodes of, “America the Story of Us” I saw how America globalized to become the “unique nation” tha... ... middle of paper ... ...from the building of skyscrapers to the railroads, and imperialism. We have moved all the way westward and what there is to do is to globalize our nation and continue to help improve the nations that we help guide. We first need to make sure that we are practicing democracy, free trade, our values, freedom, and our beliefs. This is what it means to be an exceptional nation. Other nations look to us, and when we don’t respond accordingly or if we don’t practice what we preach, they will call us hypocrites. Works Cited America the Story of Us. History Channel, n.d. DVD. Foner, Eric. "Jimmy Carter on Human Rights." Voices of Freedom: A Documentary History. New York: W.W. Norton, 2005. 307-09. Print. Turner, Frederick Jackson. "The Significance of the Frontier in American History." The Frontier in American History. New York: H. Holt and, 1920. 1-26. Print.
In Frederick Jackson Turner’s essay, he talked about how he thought the West was where true American character was formed and that the West was the birthplace of democracy. However, in my perspective I don’t only feel that Turner was inaccurate in his analysis, but also very racist and selfish. I believe that Turner wanted to justify why taking over the West would be so necessary and beneficial to Americans. He stated several things in his essay that were obviously undermined by many primary sources in Hollitz’s book. At the time Americans took on the ideology of Manifest Destiny, which basically was the belief that Americans were destined to expand from coast to coast in North America despite the fact that there was people already occupying land on
The myth of American(USA) superiority and exceptionalism has existed since the early foundation days. The rush towards the Pacific provided an easy way to sustain this theory, and for a long time it was assumed that westward growth was the best sign of success. In fact, some of the earliest films to hold captive the American citizens were spectacles of U.S. positivism, where good always triumphed over evil.
Turner’s thesis was to a wide extent based on this belief. Turners tried to convince people that American uniqueness is as a result of the constant contact with an open frontier for about 300 years. Turner’s conclusion significantly builds up on the American exceptionalism or uniqueness. He summarized his thesis by saying the most relevant aspect of the frontier was promotion of individualistic democracy. The ubiquity of opportunity and significance of individual labor restrained monopoly of political power from developing and led to American Democratic
Stretching from the colonial times to the present times, the people of the United States have consistently believed that their country had a particular purpose in history due to its unique constitution and founding history of the nation. Alexis De Tocqueville, a French historian of the 19th century, wrote in his book Democracy in America that “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.” He wrote this following his explanation on how America has departed significantly from its European ancestry, diverging into a unique and unprecedented path. It is believed that he had first initiated the term today known as ‘American exceptionalism’, which
Before World War II, it became very clear that the US would play a new, and important leading role in the world. Henry Luce, author of The American Century, wrote about the new roles he anticipated the US to have. His essay calls the US to action in leading the rest of the world in our ways. About a year later on May 8th, 1942, Vice President Henry Wallace proposed similar ideas in a speech. He and Luce both saw the US as leading powers but disagreed on how the leading should be done. Wallace portrays the US in a friendlier manner. He calls the upcoming era the century of the common man while Luce calls it the American century. This topic is relevant today. How much involvement should leading countries have in developing ones and how should
While the US may have prided themselves in the fact that we didn’t practice imperialism or colonialism, and we weren’t an Empire country, the actions conquering land in our own country may seem to rebuff that claim. In the 19th century, the West was a synonym for the frontier, or edge of current settlement. Early on this was anything west of just about Mississippi, but beyond that is where the Indian tribes had been pushed to live, and promised land in Oklahoma after policies like Indian removal, and events like the Trail of Tears. Indian’s brief feeling of security and this promise were shattered when American’s believed it was their god given right, their Manifest Destiny, to conquer the West; they began to settle the land, and relatively quickly. And with this move, cam...
This supports Lipset’s claim of egalitarianism being one of the key components of American ideology as he gives a specific historical example of how the United States differed from the majority of other powerful nations at the time because these nations had very established social structures going back hundreds of years. While the United States was a new nation isolated from these other monarchial cultures, and that allowed America to mold its own unique independent path. This supports Lipset’s point of view concerning America being an exceptional nation as the country’s birth
...ution, a thriving American economy as well as dreams of escaping famine and oppression led immigrants to America. To the eyes of an endangered family that waits everyday to escape the pangs of hunger, America was a better life, and an almost unreachable goal. To the families that persevered, a new life may have awaited them; but for others, America may have held only poverty and hard labor. Interestingly, this is what the industrialized dream of America granted: chance; not a guarantee, nor even an opportunity in the strictest sense; just a chance. Through the Industrial Revolutions, more jobs were created; with the addition of more jobs, hopeful foreigners could immigrate. With the presence of multiple, well-defined cultural groups America began to diversify, continuing her expansion and paving the way for more people who only held a dream for an opportunity.
He states, “... the frontier conditions prevalent in the colonies are important factors in the explanation of the American Revolution, where the individual liberty was sometimes confused with the absence of all effective government.” The frontier having an individualism of its own by promoting unique democracy does correlate to the American Revolution by how America created our own democracy separate from Britain. However, this type of individualism exists outside of the west. The east is an ever-changing democracy along with the west depending on how one chooses to view it. Turner states how our dependency on foreign nations [Europe] for imported good are lessened by the plentiful resources coming from the Great West. Nevertheless, “The Crisis from 1890’s,” discusses how America was under a financial collapse and depression involving the effects of the European market for imported goods. This proves that the United States was still dependent on other nations for goods and services and not simply the Great West. The assimilation of emigrants may be another concept one would consider when thinking of what defines America and Turner would
American exceptionalism is a term suggesting that America was the best or superior; it was a term saying that it was different than any other place. Winthrop talks about the city upon the hill, which suggests America being a model or setting an example for other countries. We were supposed to be a beacon of liberty and freedom. During the founding of America, America was different than any other place. At its founding America was exceptional because it was different in the way people interacted with each other, different in the way the government worked, and different in its aspirations.
Why did Americans view themselves in such grand and venerable terms? Were they more superior than other nations and countries? Well, in fact, this is exactly how they felt. There were essentially three explanations why Americans held themselves in this regard: the virtue of the American people and their institutions; the mission to spread these institutions, thereby redeeming and remaking the world in the image of the U.S.; and the destiny under
Since the birth of America many cultures came to find freedom and opportunity to accomplish the American Dream. The American Dream is the idea that anyone who comes to America possesses the opportunity to succeed based on their merit. Through this different cultures diffused what America came to be. The influences of immigrant cultures gave America the name the land of the free. Cultural diffusion, migration, immigration, and transnationalism is important in relation to global economy based on the fact that through these countries we are granted many ideas, styles, religions, technologies, and languages from these different cultures. America became a melting pot of various cultures bringing their individuality in a country of many customs. The struggle between culture and identity is conveyed through the writings of Richard Rodriquez and Armstrong Williams to break stereotypes and be proud of who you are. People need to identify with their own culture first before identifying with America because a key American value is individualism and maintaining one’s own culture. America is a melting pot of different cultures making it necessary to remember one’s own culture in the flood of ideas and traditions within America. Through maintaining culture they are simultaneously upholding American beliefs and identifying with America.
During the 1890s and 1900s America was seen as a thriving country when in actuality it was rotten. Mark Twain gave this period a title, “the gilded age”. Other countries saw America as an industrialized nation and a world power. America was thought to be a country that had advanced into a desirable place that was booming with work opportunities and offered a better life. America was a booming country with work opportunities, but those opportunities were not ideal. Although other countries saw America as an excellent country, the people in other countries did not know the truth of America at its core.
American exceptionalism is a belief that the United States is different from other nations around the world and as such superior; the term was coined by Alexis de Tocqueville in 1831, yet the philosophy of American superiority can be traced all the way back to the days before the United States was even an idea. They saw their new culture as “A city upon a hill” and sought to achieve moral and spiritual perfection. With this moral superiority the colonists, later Americans, saw a duty presented upon them by God and nature to instill such superior values into other cultures and the world. One such example can be clearly seen in the work of St. John de Crèvecoeur in Letters from an American Farmer where the narrator “Farmer James” states his belief
To begin with, a sense of duty was instilled in many Americans from the day they could first watch and hear the flag ceremonies held throughout the nation. A deep history of revolutionary blood and a restless search for inner-peace with our nation governed the formation of these 50 peaceful states. The emergence of the US as a dominant global power forced new responsibilities upon us as we entered the 20th century. It was the age of imperialism and the US jumped in headfirst in expanding her “empire without tears”, as William Cohen stated, into all parts of the global economy. This intrusion of US economic welfare and constraint angered many but it also helped many third world nations to regain their confidence in both their identity and in their people as a whole. It was from this period which we entered the World Wars and proved to many that we could be the guiding force in the spread of Democracy. The post War era saw the birth of the Marshall plan and one of the biggest restoration projects in the history of the world began in Western Europe as the US tried to right the wrongs that WWII ingrained in so many peoples heads.