Exceptional America
What Divides Americans from the World and from Each Other
by Mugambi Jouet
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Pub Date Apr 03 2017 | Archive Date Jul 20 2017
Description
Why did Donald Trump follow Barack Obama into the White House? Why is America so polarized? And how does American exceptionalism explain these social changes?
In this provocative book, Mugambi Jouet describes why Americans are far more divided than other Westerners over basic issues, including wealth inequality, health care, climate change, evolution, gender roles, abortion, gay rights, sex, gun control, mass incarceration, the death penalty, torture, human rights, and war. Raised in Paris by a French mother and Kenyan father, Jouet then lived in the Bible Belt, Manhattan, and beyond. Drawing inspiration from Alexis de Tocqueville, he wields his multicultural sensibility to parse how the intense polarization of U.S. conservatives and liberals has become a key dimension of American exceptionalism—an idea widely misunderstood as American superiority. While exceptionalism once was a source of strength, it may now spell decline, as unique features of U.S. history, politics, law, culture, religion, and race relations foster grave conflicts. They also shed light on the intriguing ideological evolution of American conservatism, which long predated Trumpism. Anti-intellectualism, conspiracy-mongering, a visceral suspicion of government, and Christian fundamentalism are far more common in America than the rest of the Western world—Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Exceptional America dissects the American soul, in all of its peculiar, clashing, and striking manifestations.
In this provocative book, Mugambi Jouet describes why Americans are far more divided than other Westerners over basic issues, including wealth inequality, health care, climate change, evolution, gender roles, abortion, gay rights, sex, gun control, mass incarceration, the death penalty, torture, human rights, and war. Raised in Paris by a French mother and Kenyan father, Jouet then lived in the Bible Belt, Manhattan, and beyond. Drawing inspiration from Alexis de Tocqueville, he wields his multicultural sensibility to parse how the intense polarization of U.S. conservatives and liberals has become a key dimension of American exceptionalism—an idea widely misunderstood as American superiority. While exceptionalism once was a source of strength, it may now spell decline, as unique features of U.S. history, politics, law, culture, religion, and race relations foster grave conflicts. They also shed light on the intriguing ideological evolution of American conservatism, which long predated Trumpism. Anti-intellectualism, conspiracy-mongering, a visceral suspicion of government, and Christian fundamentalism are far more common in America than the rest of the Western world—Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Exceptional America dissects the American soul, in all of its peculiar, clashing, and striking manifestations.
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"Mugambi Jouet traveled from Paris, France, to Houston, Texas, as a college freshman and has been trying to make sense of the American experience ever since. The result is a richly textured account of the forces that make the United States unlike anywhere else in the world."—June Carbone, University of Minnesota Law School
"Using a comparative perspective, and seeking to place American values in a larger context, Jouet provides perspectives on the pervasive culture war that divides Americans."—Naomi Cahn, George Washington University Law School
"This thought-provoking work explores a political shift that has transformed the concept of American exceptionalism into one of American superiority in recent decades. The author, raised in Paris by a French mother and a Kenyan father and a graduate of American colleges and law school, brings the invaluable perspective of both an insider and an outsider to the double-edged impact of exceptionalist ideology on both the United States and the world. With a combination of appreciation and skepticism, he recognizes the positive exceptionalism of America as a 'city on a hill' as well as a negative insularity that has made the United States an outlier among Western democracies on issues ranging from capital punishment to international human rights treaties."—Susan Jacoby, author of The Age of American Unreason
"Exceptional America is a seminal work written by a French author from a comparative framework. It is an eye-opener of America's contradictions, highly relevant in contemporary politics and a must-read for policy makers." —Pashaura Singh, bestselling author of Life and Work of Guru Arjan: History, Memory and Biography in the Sikh Tradition.
"Using a comparative perspective, and seeking to place American values in a larger context, Jouet provides perspectives on the pervasive culture war that divides Americans."—Naomi Cahn, George Washington University Law School
"This thought-provoking work explores a political shift that has transformed the concept of American exceptionalism into one of American superiority in recent decades. The author, raised in Paris by a French mother and a Kenyan father and a graduate of American colleges and law school, brings the invaluable perspective of both an insider and an outsider to the double-edged impact of exceptionalist ideology on both the United States and the world. With a combination of appreciation and skepticism, he recognizes the positive exceptionalism of America as a 'city on a hill' as well as a negative insularity that has made the United States an outlier among Western democracies on issues ranging from capital punishment to international human rights treaties."—Susan Jacoby, author of The Age of American Unreason
"Exceptional America is a seminal work written by a French author from a comparative framework. It is an eye-opener of America's contradictions, highly relevant in contemporary politics and a must-read for policy makers." —Pashaura Singh, bestselling author of Life and Work of Guru Arjan: History, Memory and Biography in the Sikh Tradition.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9780520293298 |
| PRICE | $29.95 (USD) |
| PAGES | 368 |
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