What Are Charles Murray's Arguments For American Exceptionalism

In 2013, Charles Murray, an American political scientist, published his work, American Exceptionalism. In this 50 page treatise, Murray argues for an exceptional America countering the more prominent modernist views that America never was, and therefore is not, exceptional. Both sides of the debate are presented in this book, so that one can ascertain whether or not America was exceptional, despite Mr. Murray’s obvious slant to the former. What are Murray’s arguments for American exceptionalism, was America exceptional, and is America still exceptional today? Charles Murray lays several arguments for American exceptionalism from the setting, to the ideology, to the traits, to the politics. The first of these, the setting, is rather unique.

Although Murray seems to over-exaggerate the “goodness” of the earliest settlers, it is true that only the bravest and most desperate would settle the colonies, resulting in a much more principled society, which manifested their traits. For example, the philosophy that “all men are created equal” remains to this day. We have social classes but these are terms to describe income differences rather than actual divisions of rank. The communal aspect, epitomized by Mayberry in The Andy Griffith Show, kept communities close and strong, resulting in quick societal growth. Industriousness was vital, especially in the western frontier and early colonies, where settlers quickly found they had to work hard or die. And underlying all of this was the most important trait of religiosity. The majority of colonist believed in God and thus built their lives, societies, and government on Christian principles. As to politics, the system of government that the Founding Fathers created was completely experimental. America was the first to successfully give the power to the people. And finally, the ideology, may possibly be the most well-known exceptionality. The ideas that humans had natural rights given by a Creator demonstrated that America believed human life and their rights to be sacred and divinely protected. And when the colonists created a country based on these earth-shattering ideas, America truly became