Where did the term “American Exceptionalism” originate, and what does it mean? This term came from the French nobleman, diplomat, and historian Alexis de Tocqueville. De Tocqueville toured America in 1831 and wrote the classic two-volume set, Democracy in America. This is still considered the best analysis of the young American Republic, and de Tocqueville has been considered perhaps the most brilliant social scientist since its release.
It would be hard to find any study of any country that is wider in its scope, deeper or more insightful in its analysis, as well as prophetic, as de Tocqueville’s work. He not only described with clarity and detail the major factors that had secured the American Republic such stability, but even foretold accurately much of what America would become over a century later. For example, he predicted a time when Russia and America would be the two great and competing powers in the world. This happened after World War II when Russia led the Soviet Union and the American Republic became “the leader of the free world.”
De Tocqueville lived and served as a leading French politician and statesmen during the extremely turbulent times after the French Revolution, which led to two subsequent revolutions, as well as multiple coups and coup attempts. From the chaos in his own country, he looked to America that seemed to be enjoying amazing stability and prosperity after its revolution. When he was sent to America to study our penal system, he broadened his work to try to understand what had enabled the Americans to achieve such stability and prosperity.
After extensive travels throughout the country, de Tocqueville saw that the young Republic was very different from European countries, an exception in many basic ways. This was referred to as “American Exceptionalism.” Of course, exceptional does not necessarily mean better, but different. De Tocqueville understood that America was better because of some of these differences. His brilliance and honesty enabled him to understand many things about America that perhaps no other European could see, even to this day, and very few Americans have either. We need to understand how America is an exception, as there are still key factors impacting our world for its good.
I have traveled extensively since the 1980s, and more to Europe than any other continent, which I usually visit three or more times a year. Europe has a rich, deep history and culture. We have much to be thankful for with the European roots in our heritage in America, but we also have a lot to be thankful for in the ways that we are different.
I have likewise listened to many Europeans share their insights about America. I am yet to hear one that was accurate or really grasped what we are like. I also read many articles about America by Europeans, but I have never read one that I thought truly understood us. Why? How could de Tocqueville have done so brilliantly what no European since has seemed capable of doing?
We all have filters we perceive the world through. A big factor in the formation of these filters is our sources of information. At the time I started traveling so often to Europe, CNN was as trustworthy as any news source in America, so I expected CNN International to be likewise. I was wrong and was stunned by its anti-American propaganda and the outright lies it was spreading about America. Perhaps Europeans assumed that it was accurate because it was an American media company, but I was deeply troubled that someone could do this kind of thing to their own country. It is one thing to be negative and challenging at home, but to spread such lies around the world was a new level of treachery.
Why is our country now so filled with anti-American Americans? The primary globalist force in the world, the Marxists, declared in the 1930s that they would take over America from within by taking over the media, the education system, arts and entertainment, and then the government would easily fall into their hands. Their plan was even read into the congressional record. They boasted how they would revise our history to make the good look evil and the evil look good, and turn the emerging generations against their own country. Now they are claiming that it is very close to having been fully accomplished.
We will have much more to say about this evil subversion in future Briefs, but first we will look at why even our European allies seem to have so little understanding of what America is really like. Most of the Europeans I have listened to, or read, believe that America is built on the same pillars of civilization that European nations and cultures are built on, basically Christianity, and the evolution from feudalism to democratic government colored by the different arts and philosophies.
Regardless of how logical your thinking may be, if you start with the wrong facts your conclusions will be wrong. America did not evolve from the same roots Europe did even though we were European colonies for a time. Of course, every country is unique in some ways, but why is America so different in so many basic ways? One major factor must be how American Christianity made a significant departure from European Christianity with the first colonies.
Many of the colonists were born out of unique new movements seeking to recover the biblical, apostolic faith, and were fiercely persecuted by the religious institutions of Europe. Those being so persecuted for their faith were induced to become colonists by being promised the freedom of religion in “the new world.” With this freedom they began to see with even more independent eyes, and American Christianity became very different from European Christianity from the beginning. Even American Protestantism and Catholicism are very different from those practiced anywhere else in the world.
Likewise, the first English colonists were promised self-government if they would go to America. This was not the case with any of the other colonies. Even as European nations were gradually embracing and trying to apply to their governments some of the basic principles of democracy, there were still great restraints on them from their culture, heritage, and prevailing religious institutions. Not so in North America where self-government was practiced from the beginning. What emerged here was profoundly different than what was evolving in Europe or any other European colony.
There are other factors that have made America an exception, and this is a good thing that we do not want to lose. Again, to be an exception does not necessarily mean it is better, but different. Even so, what we have become is better for us, and we can thank our American ancestors in every generation for not being intimidated into conforming to anyone else’s opinions of what we should be.
No doubt we have at times succumbed to the temptation of going to the other extreme and seeking to impose what we have become on others, but thankfully most of our leaders have resisted this tendency. The deep devotion to freedom in Americans has usually kept us in the place of allowing others to seek their own way just as we have.
Even though it seems that America is mostly misunderstood by outsiders, it does not mean that all of their insights are not without merit or helpful. Even so, how did de Tocqueville, who seemingly should have been the embodiment of European thinking, discern America and Americans so well? What was it that he saw? He summed it up in the following:
I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers – and it was not there . . . in her fertile fields and boundless forests and it was not there . . . in her rich mines and her vast world commerce – and it was not there . . . in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution – and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
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