America, the Ghastly Years

Few historians are as accomplished or as consistent as Bernard Bailyn, the Adams University professor emeritus at Harvard University and a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for American history. In a long and productive scholarly career, he has worked steadily within the interpretive bounds of “American Exceptionalism.” Last year that phrase erupted into the Republican primary debates as Newt Gingrich cast American Exceptionalism as the true national faith, and demonized President Obama as a heretic prone to regard other national cultures as worthy of respect. Gingrich’s populist version celebrates America as exceptional in its devotion to liberty and endowed with a providential mission to lead and preach to the unfortunate people condemned to live elsewhere.