American Exceptionalism

American exceptionalism refers to the view that the United States is qualitatively different from other nations. Its uniqueness lies in its appearance of a revolution, becoming "the first new nation", and the development of a single ideology of America, based on freedom, egalitarianism, individualism, populism and laissez-faire ". This observation can be traced back to Alexis de Tocqueville, the first writer to describe the United States as" exceptional. "Although the term does not imply superiority, some writers have used in that sense. For them, the United States city is a "shining on a hill", and devoid of the historical forces that have affected other countries . In the 1960 "post" scholars rejected American exceptionalism, arguing that the United States had broken European history, and retained class inequality, imperialism and war. In addition, they saw all nations as the subscription of some sort of uniqueness. (Wilentz,1-4)

Historian Dorothy Ross discuss three streams in American exceptionalism:

1. Protestant American Christians believe that progress would lead America to the Christian Millennium.

2. American writers also linked with the development history of liberty in Anglo-Saxon England, but back to the traditions of the Teutonic tribes who conquered the western Roman Empire .

3. Other American writers looked at the "new millennium" in America, and the mass of the "virgin land" promised an escape from the former republics suffered decline . The U.S. position is therefore quite exceptional, and may believe that democratic people are always placed in a similar. Strictly Puritanical origin, their exclusively commercial habits, even though the country they inhabit, which seems to divert your mind from the pursuit of science, literature and the arts, the proximity of Europe, allowing them to neglect these activities, without returning to fall into barbarism, a thousand special causes, of which I've only been able to identify ...