The idea that America is exceptional, whether because of its founding creed, natural abundance, or Protestant origins, has been the subject of fierce debate going back to the founding. Rather than argue for one side or the other, Volker Depkat explores the diverse ways in which Americans have described their country as exceptional. Describing how narratives of exceptionalism have never been a purely American affair, Depkat shows how, for example, European, African, and Asian immigrants projected their own dreams and nightmares onto the American screen, contributing to the intellectual construction of America. In fact, the different groups living in America have described American exceptionalism in such differing terms that there hardly ever was a shared understanding as to what these exceptional experiences were and how to interpret them. What has unified the disparate exceptionalist narratives, Depkat explains, is their insistence on America's universalist and future-oriented way of life. In engaging and lucid prose, Depkat offers general readers and students of American history an invaluable lens through which they can evaluate for themselves the merits of the many ways in which Americans have understood their country as exceptional.

Volker Depkatis a professor in the Department of British and American Studies at the University of Regensburg, Germany.

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1 The American Land: Landscapes of Abundance, Wilderness, and Beauty

Chapter 2 The West and the South: Exceptional Regions and Regions of Exceptionalism

Chapter 3 Cities upon Hills: The Colonial Foundations of American Exceptionalism

Chapter 4 Sacred Fire of Liberty: The American Revolution and the Transformation of American Exceptionalism

Chapter 5 The American Way of Empire: Exceptionalism and U.S. Foreign Policy

Chapter 6 Promissory Notes: Exceptionalism and African American Self-Empowerment

Chapter 7 Perfectible Union: American Exceptionalism and Reform

Chapter 8 People of Plenty: American Exceptionalism and Affluence

Chapter 9 Crisis of Disorientation: Contested Exceptionalisms in Contemporary America

Bibliographical Essay

Index

About the Author