Civic Culture and American Exceptionalism

Who was Tocqueville?

• Short biography
• Reasons for coming to America
• Itinerary
• Map of his travels, along with journal entries

Civic Culture

• Individualism
• US v. Europe
• Distrust of government
• Patriotism
• Comparative data
• "Nothing is more annoying inthe ordinary intercourse of life than this irritable patriotism of the American" (p. 237).
• Religion
• "The religious atmosphere of the country was the first thing that struck me on arrival in the United States." (p. 295 of Lawrence-Mayer ed.) 
• Recent data.
• A graph
• In June 2006, Barack Obama gave an important speech on religion in politics. See prepared text here and video clip here.
• Service
• Tocqueville on American democracy: "Under its sway it is not especially the things accomplished by the public administration that are great, but rather those things done without its help and beyond its sphere" (p. 244)
• Where people volunteer
• Where people give (go to p. 10)

Civil Religion

• Winthrop's "City on a Hill"
• The Liberty Bell: "Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof" (Leviticus 25:10)
• The national motto, "In God We Trust"
• The Dollar Bill
• The Pledge of Allegiance (see old method of salute)
• Early Thanksgiving Proclamations