Narratives of American Exceptionalism in U.S. Presidential Rhetoric

Narratives of “American Exceptionalism” have long been a recurrent theme in scholarship on U.S. foreign policy. In addition, the belief that the United States of America is an “exceptional” country can be found in U.S. political rhetoric across time – albeit in differing manifestations and meanings. The paper takes these observations as a starting point and sets out to examine narratives of “American Exceptionalism” and their significance for U.S. foreign policy. To that end, origins and developments of narratives of “American Exceptionalism” shall be discussed. Furthermore, references to the concept of “American Exceptionalism” in U.S. presidential rhetoric shall be identified and analyzed. The paper thus detects differing narratives of “American Exceptionalism” over the course of history and illustrates their connection to power. With recourse to the 2016 presidential election, the paper not least highlights the persistent significance of narratives of “American Exceptionalism” today.