Alexis De Tocqueville: American Exceptionalism

Stretching from the colonial times to the present times, the people of the United States have consistently believed that their country had a particular purpose in history due to its unique constitution and founding history of the nation. Alexis De Tocqueville, a French historian of the 19th century, wrote in his book Democracy in America that “the position of the Americans is therefore quite exceptional, and it may be believed that no democratic people will ever be placed in a similar one.” He wrote this following his explanation on how America has departed significantly from its European ancestry, diverging into a unique and unprecedented path. It is believed that he had first initiated the term today known as ‘American exceptionalism’, which

Spanos, a postmodernist critique of Western foreign policy, believes that the history of American exceptionalist ethos is divided into four phases: the colonial era to the Gilded Age, the Cold War era, the Vietnam War decade, and the post 9/11 era. Spanos states that these phases have significantly increased in aggression chronologically, and goes on to believe that American exceptionalism is the product of analyzing the world with a secularized teleological view of history derived from Christianity. John Gray, a political philosopher, holds parallel beliefs to Spanos as he provides an extensive historical survey of the Evangelical postmillennial influence on the conception of American exceptionalism and that American liberal internationalist foreign policies are based on unachievable utopian

In 1981, Graham wrote The Coming Storm, an essay in his book Till Armageddon: A Perspective on Suffering. It rationalized the disillusioning circumstances when he stated that “the theory that the world is getting better and better, and solving its political, economic and social problems is no longer taught with much confidence. We are living in a day of serious turmoil and trouble, and most thinking people to whom I talk forecast that things are going to get worse instead of better.” Although Graham maintained his stance of imminent destruction throughout his life, this was a contrast to the more optimistic world view of what he wrote earlier in 1965 in essay The Flame of Political Dilemma: “I do not believe that all is black and hopeless. There is still time to return to the moral and spiritual principles that made the West great. There is still time for God to