Exceptional America

Author : Mugambi Jouet
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520966465
Total Pages : 358 pages
Book Rating : 4.68/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Exceptional America written by Mugambi Jouet and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2017-04-03 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Author : Dick Cheney
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1501115448
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.48/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Exceptional written by Dick Cheney and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-09-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new book by former Vice President and #1 New York Times bestselling author Dick Cheney and Liz Cheney.

Author : Nick Adams
Publisher : iUniverse
ISBN 13 : 1475917686
Total Pages : 217 pages
Book Rating : 4.80/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Exceptional Americ written by Nick Adams and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2012-04 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The worsening debt crisis, the plague of political correctness, and the threat to personal freedoms would make a lesser nation and her people crumble. Yet Americans possess an unrelenting desire for a better life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. As Australian Nick Adams travels throughout America celebrating the character of her citizens and the causes she champions, he provides a historical roadmap, connecting our doggedly determined past with our uncharted future. Exceptional America takes you into the heart of the nation as you rediscover that those ingrained qualities of her people that first made her a superpower are the same that make America so exceptional today, and the same that will secure her destiny.

Author : Mugambi Jouet
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520293290
Total Pages : 372 pages
Book Rating : 4.98/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Exceptional America written by Mugambi Jouet and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2017-04-03 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why does a country built on the concept of liberty have the highest incarceration rate in the world? How could the first Western nation to elect a person of color as its leader suffer from institutional racism? How does Christian fundamentalism coexist with gay marriage in the American imagination? In essence, what makes the United States exceptional? In this provocative exploration of American exceptionalism, Mugambi Jouet examines why Americans are far more divided than other Westerners over basic issues—including wealth inequality, health care, climate change, evolution, the literal truth of the Bible, abortion, gay rights, gun control, mass incarceration, and war. Drawing inspiration from Alexis de Tocqueville, Jouet, raised in Paris by a French mother and a Kenyan father, wields his multicultural sensibility to parse the ways in which the intense polarization of U.S. conservatives and liberals has become a key dimension of American exceptionalism—an idea widely misunderstood to mean American superiority. Instead, Jouet contends that exceptionalism, once a source of strength, may now spell decline, as unique features of U.S. history, politics, law, culture, religion, and race relations foster grave conflicts and injustices. This book offers a brilliant dissection of the American soul, in all of its outsize, clashing, and striking manifestations.

Author : Peter H Schuck
Publisher : Hachette UK
ISBN 13 : 0786745487
Total Pages : 704 pages
Book Rating : 4.87/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Understanding America written by Peter H Schuck and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2009-04-07 with total page 704 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is America? Is it a hegemonic superpower, composed of ruthlessly selfish capitalists? Or is it a land of hope and glory, a shelter for the huddled masses, and a beacon of freedom and enlightenment? The definition of this complex nation has been debated substantially, yet all seem to agree on one thing: it is unique. The idea of an exceptional America can be traced all the way back to Alexis de Tocqueville's nineteenth-century observations of a newly formed democracy that seemed determined to distinguish itself from the rest. Little, it seems, has changed. Building on de Tocqueville's concept of American exceptionalism, this collection of essays, contributed by some of the nation's top scholars and thinkers, takes on the weighty task of sizing up America in a way its people and others can comprehend. Far more than simple history, they outline the current state of American institutions and policies -- from the legal system to marriage to the military to the Drug War -- and anticipate where these are headed in the future.

Author : Richard B. Freeman
Publisher : Russell Sage Foundation
ISBN 13 : 1610442172
Total Pages : 208 pages
Book Rating : 4.76/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book America Works written by Richard B. Freeman and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2007-04-02 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The U.S. labor market is the most laissez faire of any developed nation, with a weak social safety net and little government regulation compared to Europe or Japan. Some economists point to this hands-off approach as the source of America's low unemployment and high per-capita income. But the stagnant living standards and rising economic insecurity many Americans now face take some of the luster off the U.S. model. In America Works, noted economist Richard Freeman reveals how U.S. policies have created a labor market remarkable both for its dynamism and its disparities. America Works takes readers on a grand tour of America's exceptional labor market, comparing the economic institutions and performance of the United States to the economies of Europe and other wealthy countries. The U.S. economy has an impressive track record when it comes to job creation and productivity growth, but it isn't so good at reducing poverty or raising the wages of the average worker. Despite huge gains in productivity, most Americans are hardly better off than they were a generation ago. The median wage is actually lower now than in the early 1970s, and the poverty rate in 2005 was higher than in 1969. So why have the benefits of productivity growth been distributed so unevenly? One reason is that unions have been steadily declining in membership. In Europe, labor laws extend collective bargaining settlements to non-unionized firms. Because wage agreements in America only apply to firms where workers are unionized, American managers have discouraged unionization drives more aggressively. In addition, globalization and immigration have placed growing competitive pressure on American workers. And boards of directors appointed by CEOs have raised executive pay to astronomical levels. Freeman addresses these problems with a variety of proposals designed to maintain the vigor of the U.S. economy while spreading more of its benefits to working Americans. To maintain America's global competitive edge, Freeman calls for increased R&D spending and financial incentives for students pursuing graduate studies in science and engineering. To improve corporate governance, he advocates licensing individuals who serve on corporate boards. Freeman also makes the case for fostering worker associations outside of the confines of traditional unions and for establishing a federal agency to promote profit-sharing and employee ownership. Assessing the performance of the U.S. job market in light of other developed countries' recent history highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the free market model. Written with authoritative knowledge and incisive wit, America Works provides a compelling plan for how we can make markets work better for all Americans. A Volume in the Russell Sage Foundation's Centennial Series

Author : Volker Depkat
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 153810119X
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.93/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book American Exceptionalism written by Volker Depkat and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-11-15 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Author : Richard Brookhiser
Publisher : Basic Books
ISBN 13 : 1541699122
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.20/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Give Me Liberty written by Richard Brookhiser and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2019-11-05 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An award-winning historian recounts the history of American liberty through the stories of thirteen essential documents Nationalism is inevitable: It supplies feelings of belonging, identity, and recognition. It binds us to our neighbors and tells us who we are. But increasingly -- from the United States to India, from Russia to Burma -- nationalism is being invoked for unworthy ends: to disdain minorities or to support despots. As a result, nationalism has become to many a dirty word. In Give Me Liberty, award-winning historian and biographer Richard Brookhiser offers up a truer and more inspiring story of American nationalism as it has evolved over four hundred years. He examines America's history through thirteen documents that made the United States a new country in a new world: a free country. We are what we are because of them; we stay true to what we are by staying true to them. Americans have always sought liberty, asked for it, fought for it; every victory has been the fulfillment of old hopes and promises. This is our nationalism, and we should be proud of it.

Author : Charles A. Murray
Publisher : A E I Press
ISBN 13 : 9780844772646
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.4X/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book American Exceptionalism written by Charles A. Murray and published by A E I Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The phrase "American exceptionalism" is used in many ways and for many purposes, but its original meaning involved a statement of fact: for the first century after the Constitution went into effect, European observers and Americans alike saw the United States as exceptional, with political and civic cultures that had no counterparts anywhere else. In American Exceptionalism: An Experiment in History, Charles Murray describes how America's geography, ideology, politics, and daily life set the new nation apart from Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries. He then discusses the ways that exceptionalism changed during America's evolution over the course of the 20th century. Which changes are gains to be applauded? Which are losses to be mourned? Answering these questions is the essential first step in discovering what you want for America's future.

Author : Philip Abbott
Publisher : Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.09/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Exceptional America written by Philip Abbott and published by Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers. This book was released on 1999 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The belief that America is not only different but «exceptional» is a central aspect of American identity that appears in the speeches and writings of John Winthrop to Martin Luther King Jr. to Ronald Reagan. Yet how and why America is exceptional has produced widely diverse answers. Philip Abbott alters this debate by arguing that Americans are the way they talk. He examines American exceptionalism as a preoccupation with «newness» in both politics and culture and traces its influence in a series of great American political texts, including the Declaration of Independence, The Federalist Papers, Democracy in America, Walden, The Souls of Black Folk, and various novels and speeches.