American national-consensus rhetoric dates to the Puritan errand in the wilderness.

Evidence

Beginning with the Puritan “errand in the wilderness,” there has existed in this country an institutionalized ideological rhetoric expressing a peculiarly American consciousness, identity, destiny, and role whose function has always been to incorporate as much of America’s (and the world’s) diversity as possible, and to reform it in a uniquely American way. This rhetoric and its institutional presence in American life have been convincingly analyzed by numerous scholars, among them Perry Miller and, most recently, Sacvan Bercovitch. One result of this is the illusion, if not always the actuality, of consensus, and it is as part of this essentially nationalist consensus that the media, acting on behalf of the society they serve, believe themselves to be functioning. — Edward W. Said, Covering Islam, 186

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Perry Miller/Sacvan Bercovitch’s work on American jeremiad and exceptionalism — the same rhetorical lineage as American exceptionalism in diplomacy. — connects to: The Old Testament’s wilderness image authorized Protestant dominion over nature and land. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 555