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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.
E-Book Content
Exceptional America W H AT D I V I D E S A M E R I C A N S FROM THE WORLD A ND FROM E ACH OTHER
Mugambi Jouet
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
additional praise for exceptional america “Mugambi Jouet traveled from Paris, France, to Houston, Texas, as a college freshman and has been trying to make sense of the American experience ever since. The result is a richly textured account of the forces that make the United States unlike anywhere else in the world.” — june carbone, Robina Chair in Law, Science, and Technology, University of Minnesota Law School, and coauthor of Red Families v. Blue Families “Using a comparative perspective, and seeking to place American values in a larger context, Mugambi Jouet provides perspectives on the pervasive culture war that divides Americans.” — naomi cahn, Harold H. Greene Professor of Law, George Washington University Law School, and coauthor of Red Families v. Blue Families “Exceptional America is a seminal work written by a French author from a comparative framework. It is an eye-opening presentation of America’s contradictions, highly relevant in contemporary politics and a must-read for policy makers.” — pashaura singh, Chair, Department of Religious Studies, University of California, Riverside
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Exceptional America
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Exceptional America W H AT D I V I D E S A M E R I C A N S FROM THE WORLD A ND FROM E ACH OTHER
Mugambi Jouet
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu. University of California Press Oakland, California © 2017 by Mugambi Jouet Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Jouet, Mugambi, 1981– author. Title: Exceptional America : what separates Americans from the world and from each other / Mugambi Jouet. Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: lccn 20160