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Also by Godfrey Hodgson:

The Myth of American Exceptionalism, February 2009
Hardcover
A Great and Godly Adventure, October 2006
Hardcover

The Myth of American Exceptionalism
Godfrey Hodgson

Yale University Press
February 2009
On Sale: January 27, 2009
240 pages
ISBN: 0300125704
EAN: 9780300125702
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction

The idea that the United States is destined to spread its unique gifts of democracy and capitalism to other countries is dangerous for Americans and for the rest of the world, warns Godfrey Hodgson in this provocative book. Hodgson, a shrewd and highly respected British commentator, argues that America is not as exceptional as it would like to think; its blindness to its own history has bred a complacent nationalism and a disastrous foreign policy that has isolated and alienated it from the global community.

Tracing the development of America’s high self regard from the early days of the republic to the present era, Hodgson demonstrates how its exceptionalism has been systematically exaggerated and—in recent decades—corrupted. While there have been distinct and original elements in America’s history and political philosophy, notes Hodgson, these have always been more heavily influenced by European thought and experience than Americans have been willing to acknowledge.

A stimulating and timely assessment of how America’s belief in its exceptionalism has led it astray, this book is mandatory reading for its citizens, admirers, and detractors.

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