Book Review: The American Exception, Volumes 1 & 2, by Frank J. Lechner

America—an exceptional nation. This is the basis of this series of books. I have included both volumes of this book in the same review because they really do flow together. Frank J. Lechner in these 2 books looks at perspectives on the thinking that the American nation is truly exceptional.

VOLUME 1: Chapter 1 introduces the idea of the “American Exception.” While it is often easy to define America as exceptional, there are others who would scoff at this. Therefore, it is important now to study the exceptional nature of America. Chapter 2 looks at the different perspectives that people have on the American Exception. These perspectives are the American perspective, Tocqueville’s perspective, the Socialist perspective, and the Anti-American perspective. Chapter 3 looks at the American Exception regarding religion. Megachurches, evangelicalism, civil religion, and missions are all discussed. Chapter 4 deals with the American Exception and the law. Capital punishment, adversarial legalism, the Constitution, and the U.S. in international law are all topics under examination. Chapter 5 is the last chapter of volume 1 and looks at the American Exception in sports. Baseball, football, racial issues, and world sports are discussed at length in this chapter.

VOLUME 2:Chapter 1 of the second volume continues by looking at the American Exception in the realm of economics. Housing, financial market growth, opportunity and mobility, and the U.S. in world economics are all looked at here. Chapter 2 delves into the American Exception in different government programs. Healthcare, welfare, citizenship regarding race, and immigration are all looked at here. Chapter 3 looks at the American Exception in the media. Music, TV, media moguls, and the U.S. in global movies are all looked at. The final chapter of these 2 books is the American Exception in America’s power. The war on terror, military force, America’s mission, and the U.S. in the global empire are all looked at here. 

Since I reviewed 2 books for this, rather than out of 5 stars, I will rate these books out of 10. America is truly an exceptional nation, but we have much work to do to keep it that way. These books provide good perspectives on that. For these reasons, I give these books 8 stars out of 10.

WHERE TO BUY THIS BOOK:

http://www.springer.com/us/book/9781137587169 AND http://www.springer.com/us/book/9781137587190

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THIS BOOK:

Lechner, Frank J. The American Exception, Volumes 1 & 2. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International, 2017.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL: I received a complimentary copy of this book through the Springer book review program, which requires an honest, though not necessarily positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.