American exceptionalism repackaged empire because it could not inherit old imperial language

Evidence

The United States, however, could not simply accept in toto the language of the old empires. Its own anticolonial history meant that there were voices in the political sphere that resisted the mantle of imperialism. Even though it entered the imperial arena with the Spanish-American War of 1898, the “issue of self-rule was so deeply emplaced in the national psyche,” Sidney Lens writes, that “an anti-imperialist opposition … began to form.” The Anti-Imperialist League, founded in November of 1898, included not only figures like Mark Twain but also prominent mainstream politicians. This trend of opposition in the mainstream was mitigated over the course of the twentieth century; nevertheless, it gave rise to an image of the United States as being a different kind of world power—different, that is, from the “old-style imperialism” of Europe. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 142 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: American exceptionalism’s self-image erases the country’s own colonial and imperial history; American exceptionalism erases the country’s settler-colonial and imperial wars while projecting benevolence; US postwar security state disguised imperial expansion as defensive exceptionalism — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 732 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• American exceptionalism’s self-image erases the country’s own colonial and imperial history #expands (0.95)
• US anticolonial identity required a distinct language masking its imperial ambitions. #corroborates (0.95) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 142
• American exceptionalism erases the country’s settler-colonial and imperial wars while projecting benevolence #expands (0.92)
• US postwar security state disguised imperial expansion as defensive exceptionalism #expands (0.90) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 732
• Modernization theory masked empire despite claiming objective social science #expands (0.82)
• US post-war hegemony repurposed Orientalism and modernization theory to justify empire. #expands (0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 28
• The 1990s unipolar moment revived open imperial language in US policy #expands (0.80)
• Only post-Cold War unipolarity let US elites openly embrace empire language #expands (0.80)
• Postwar US empire was legitimated through modernization theory and Orientalism #expands (0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 256
• American empire inherited and reformulated European Orientalism after World War II #complicates (0.75) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 724