Why We Should Study American Exceptionalism

The phrase “American Exceptionalism” gets a pretty bad rap these days. At best, it’s associated with mindless hubris and at worst, racist ethno-nationalism. As such I understand why these words would leave people with a bad taste in their mouths. But…I think simply dismissing American Exceptionalism is a bad idea - because it’s far more important to American history than one might suspect at first blush. Sure, exceptionalism has provided the rationale for all sorts of unsavory episodes of the nation’s past. But, it’s also framed Americans’ sense of identity since the founding.

For the uninitiated, American Exceptionalism is the belief that the United States is unique and has a divine mission or destiny in the world. Studying its development in the 18th and 19th centuries allows us to trace the roots of American identity and helps explain how early Americans perceived their nation's role - both for themselves and on the global stage. Americans, as Thomas Jefferson would clearly articulate in his first inaugural address, saw their nation as the “world’s best hope.”

Various factors such as westward expansion, democratic ideals, and the sense of a providential mission influenced this concept. By examining these elements, one can gain a deeper understanding of the foundational principles that have shaped Americans national consciousness.

I find this concept particularly relevant to my area of study: the Civil War in historical memory, and especially Union soldiers and veterans. Sometimes my students have to take a minute to really understand why so many men would enlist and potentially risk their lives for something that is to them an abstract concept - Union. But when we discuss it, I try to impart that many of those who rushed to the Federal colors early on did so to preserve an idea…a unique national experiment founded on a set of principles, such as the rule of law, that they fully embraced. Disunion, to many of these men, meant that the experiment had failed - that the virtues of representative democracy were shallow and superficial. Successfully breaking apart the nation suggesting something akin to an identity crisis. Oh sure, there were lots of reasons to join the army in 1861: adventure, peer pressure, some even wanted strike a blow at the slaveholders, who they saw as the principal culprit in disunion. But more than any other reason, the preservation of Union, in all its exceptional glory, served as the primary motivating factor for enlistment.

I think Union soldier Sullivan Ballou articulated this idea most beautifully:

My Very Dear Wife:

Indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days, perhaps to-morrow. Lest I should not be able to write you again, I feel impelled to write a few lines, that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more.

Our movement may be one of a few days duration and full of pleasure and it may be one of severe conflict and death to me. Not my will, but thine, O God be done. If it is necessary that I should fall on the battle-field for any country, I am ready. I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in, the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how strongly American civilization now leans upon the triumph of government, and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution, and I am willing, perfectly willing to lay down all my joys in this life to help maintain this government, and to pay that debt.

Tragically, this was his last letter, as he perished facing the enemies of his nation at First Bull Run.

I am currently working on the veteran understanding of American Exceptionalism through the lens of battlefield commemoration. Yes indeedy, I have an article dropping in Gettysburg Magazine this summer - so be on the lookout! If you want a preview of what I wrote…stay tuned. I’ve got something pretty awesome brewing that will allow to interactive commentary on the subject.

With compliments,

Keith