TY - JOUR

T1 - The Coinage of the Term American Exceptionalism and its Original Meanings

AU - Adamova, N.E.

PY - 2017

Y1 - 2017

N2 - Within the past two decades, ‘American exceptionalism’ has become a trendy term both in political debates and academic discussions. Today, the words ‘American exceptionalism’ generally imply either the uniqueness or superiority of a number of American features over those of the rest of the world. However, the term originally had little in common with such interpretations when it was coined in a controversy among American Communists in 1920s. Relying on the publications of various Marxist factions in the USA and documents of the Comintern, this paper aims to trace the early history of the term ‘American exceptionalism’ in the 1920 and 1930s and to deconstruct related concepts. It is argued that even solely within Marxist discourse the term ‘American exceptionalism’ had several meanings and all of them differed considerably from contemporary definitions. First, it was used sarcastically to address the members of the Communist Party who did not believe that the

AB - Within the past two decades, ‘American exceptionalism’ has become a trendy term both in political debates and academic discussions. Today, the words ‘American exceptionalism’ generally imply either the uniqueness or superiority of a number of American features over those of the rest of the world. However, the term originally had little in common with such interpretations when it was coined in a controversy among American Communists in 1920s. Relying on the publications of various Marxist factions in the USA and documents of the Comintern, this paper aims to trace the early history of the term ‘American exceptionalism’ in the 1920 and 1930s and to deconstruct related concepts. It is argued that even solely within Marxist discourse the term ‘American exceptionalism’ had several meanings and all of them differed considerably from contemporary definitions. First, it was used sarcastically to address the members of the Communist Party who did not believe that the

KW - merican exceptionalism

KW - Lovestone

KW - Foster

KW - Comintern

KW - Communist Party of the USA

KW - CPUSA

KW - Marxism

KW - consensus history

KW - Daniel Bell

KW - identity

KW - the theory of myth

KW - Barthes

M3 - Article

VL - 62

SP - 106

EP - 119

JO - ВЕСТНИК САНКТ-ПЕТЕРБУРГСКОГО УНИВЕРСИТЕТА. ИСТОРИЯ

JF - ВЕСТНИК САНКТ-ПЕТЕРБУРГСКОГО УНИВЕРСИТЕТА. ИСТОРИЯ

SN - 1812-9323

IS - 1

ER -