Shifting Perspectives on American Exceptionalism: Recent Literature on American Labor Relations and Labor Politics

Abstract

Nearly a decade ago, historian Alan Dawley proclaimed the idea of American exceptionalism to be dead and buried. Dawley's pronouncement proved premature given the subsequent publication of books by Byron Shafer and Seymour Martin Lipset reaffirming the concept, as well as studies by Ian Tyrell, George Fredrickson, and others addressing the issue. However, the motion of American uniqueness so widely accepted a generation ago has come under serious challenge, and new conceptions of American “distinctiveness” or “variability” have emerged in recent scholarship.