Exceptional America : what divides Americans from the world and from each other / Mugambi Jouet.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jouet, Mugambi, 1981- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Exceptionalism--United States.

Exceptionalism.

Politics and government.

United States.

National characteristics, American.

United States--Social policy.

Social policy.

United States--Economic policy.

Economic policy.

United States--Politics and government--21st century.

Physical Description:

x, 360 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Other Title:

What divides Americans from the world and from each other

Place of Publication:

Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2017]

Summary:

"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 explores 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"--Provided by publisher.

Contents:

One nation, divisible

From the American Enlightenment to anti-intellectualism

The exceptional influence of Christian fundamentalism

The culture wars of faith, sex, and gender

Between democracy and plutocracy

Millions standing against their own economic interest

Mass incarceration, executions, and gun violence in "the land of the free"

America and the world.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-341) and index.

ISBN:

9780520293298

0520293290

OCLC:

961266515