American Exceptionalism

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.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1 The American Land: Landscapes of Abundance, Wilderness, and Beauty
Chapter 2 The West and the South: Exceptional Regions and Regions of Exceptionalism
Chapter 3 Cities upon Hills: The Colonial Foundations of American Exceptionalism
Chapter 4 Sacred Fire of Liberty: The American Revolution and the Transformation of American Exceptionalism
Chapter 5 The American Way of Empire: Exceptionalism and U. S. Foreign Policy
Chapter 6 Promissory Notes: Exceptionalism and African American Self-Empowerment
Chapter 7 Perfectible Union: American Exceptionalism and Reform
Chapter 8 People of Plenty: American Exceptionalism and Affluence
Chapter 9 Crisis of Disorientation: Contested Exceptionalisms in Contemporary America
Bibliographical Essay
Index
About the Author