American exceptionalism erases the country’s settler-colonial and imperial wars while projecting benevolence
Evidence
The United States, however, could not simply accept in toto the language of the old empires. Its own history of struggle against British imperialism meant that there were voices in the political sphere that resisted the mantle of imperialism. American exceptionalism is premised on differentiating the country from Europe and projecting it as a land of liberty and benevolence in international relations. This image erases not only its settler-colonial foundation, but also its territorial wars of expansion both with Canada and Mexico and its imperial interventions in Latin America during the nineteenth century, guided by the Monroe doctrine. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 243
Categorization
Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims
- XREF: Connects to the anti-imperialist self-image that also underpins US press-freedom exceptionalism and how US Islamophobia is framed as anti-empire — tension with other books I’ve read about US empire-building rationales.
Related
- American exceptionalism repackaged empire because it could not inherit old imperial language (similarity 0.86)
- American exceptionalism abroad requires forgetting domestic conquest and subjugation (similarity 0.84)
- US anticolonial identity required a distinct language masking its imperial ambitions. (similarity 0.82)
- American postwar empire legitimized itself through ‘benevolent supremacy’ rather than old colonialism. (similarity 0.81)
- The American Revolution was a dispute over empire’s course, not a rejection of empire. (similarity 0.80)
- The US distinguished its postwar dominance from old colonialism as benevolent supremacy (similarity 0.80)
- US postwar imperialism was framed as benevolent supremacy via free-market capitalism (similarity 0.79)
- The 1990s unipolar moment revived open imperial language in US policy (similarity 0.79)
- Every empire legitimizes itself by denying imperial motives (similarity 0.79)