exceptionalism

(noun)

In the United States, the belief that the nation does not conform to an established norm, and instead has a special and divine role to play.

Related Terms

Examples of exceptionalism in the following topics:

  • The White City, Chicago and the World Columbian Exposition

    • The World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago was an international fair whose grandeur symbolized emerging American exceptionalism.
    • The fair's unprecedented scale and grandeur became a symbol of emergent American exceptionalism in much the way that the Great Exhibition became associated with the Victorian-era United Kingdom.

  • African Americans in Southern Politics

    • Exceptions included South Carolina; at the end of Reconstruction, four of its five Congressmen were African American.

  • Disease in the New World

    • The diseases brought to the New World proved to be exceptionally deadly to the indigenous populations, and the epidemics had very different effects in different regions of the Americas.

  • Manifest Destiny

    • The term combined a belief in expansionism with other popular ideas of the era, including US exceptionalism and Romantic nationalism.

  • American Imperialism

    • American Imperialism is partly rooted in 'American exceptionalism,' the idea that the United States is different from other countries due to its specific world mission to spread liberty and democracy.

  • The Baby Boom

    • The "birth boom" of the post-war period is as much defined by the deaths that preceded and followed it as it is by an exceptionally high fertility rate.

  • The Election of 1916

    • The result was exceptionally close and the outcome was in doubt for several days.

  • The "Era of Good Feelings"

    • With the decline in political consensus, Jeffersonian principles were indeed revived on the basis of Southern exceptionalism, and the interlude of the "Era of Good Feelings" came to an end.

  • Jackson and the Democratic Party

    • They sought independence from European standards of high culture and wanted to demonstrate the excellence and exceptionalism of America's own literary tradition.

  • The Open Door Policy

    • Inherent in the Monroe Doctrine are the themes of American Exceptionalism and Manifest Destiny, two ideas that refer to the right of United States to exert its influence over the rest of the world.