O ressurgimento da História Intelectual e o 'excepcionalismo estadunidense'

O "U. S. Intellectual History" acabou de ganhar o prêmio de melhor Blog de história estadunidense, depois de haver dobrado seu tráfego em apenas um ano. O número de páginas ligadas ao mesmo blog também parece estar apontando uma nova tendência nos estudos históricos anglo-saxônicos: o ressurgimento da história intelectual após anos de predomínio da história social e da história cultural.

Antes apontada como tediosa e elitista, a história intelectual conta agora com um grande número de entusiastas jovens, que procuram trabalhar temas antes restritos a outras áreas. Questões de raça, classe, cultura e gênero foram incorporados ao elenco de temas a que os novos intelectuais têm se dedicado.

Num recente simpósio da área, com 140 participantes, levado a cabo na Universidade de Nova Iorque entre os dias 17 e 18 de novembro, foram debatidos temas como: "O tédio entre os trabalhados estadunidenses na década de 1970"; "A recepção do romance Moby-Dick" e "O problema das relações inter-raciais entre 1870 e 1930".

Esta mudança me parece diretamente ligada à necessidade de se repensar as ideais e atitudes que basearam as relações dos Estados Unidos com o restante do planeta e as respostas possíveis a um novo estatuto de sua identidade e espacialidade.

Sintomaticamente, a plenária final cuidou de discutir o que o campo nomeia de "excepcionalismo estadunidense", ou seja, a ideia, que remonta ao século XIX, de que os Estados Unidos constituem um corpo político diferente dos demais e que, por conta disso, possui tarefas e atribuições excepcionais.

Neste ponto, sugiro fortemente aos que se interessam pela história dos espaços e pela história contemporânea, a leitura de alguns excertos de um dos autores mais citados pelos debatedores, que é, basicamente desconhecido entre nós: Ian Tyrrel.

“The national “myth” of American Exceptionalism does not rest on one particular creation story or narrative derived from a specific series of events. It is more akin to a cluster of stories that provides buttresses for pseudo-analytical judgments about American national identity. Because of its composite nature, American Exceptionalism can accommodate much academic research within its flexible contours as well as obtain popular consent, through its series of subsidiary national “myths”. This paper historicizes those expressions of the myth of American exceptionalism and shows their continuing relevance to contemporary American debates over the nation’s values, traditions, and political practice.

Europeans, perhaps especially the French, have greatly influenced images of the United States (see, e.g., Philippe Roger, The American Enemy); de Tocqueville’s comments in Democracy in America have been particularly influential, though arguably his take on American exceptionalism has been misinterpreted. He was interested in democracy as a system of government, of which the U.S. was an example, albeit the prototype. But fundamentally, I believe the English inheritance is more importance. The English viewed their own empire as superior in spreading the virtues of parliamentary government and the rule of law to the less civilised of the world. The English also bequeathed to the American colonies the tradition of Protestant dissent, and that has been a very important part of American exceptionalism—through the idea that Protestantism is superior to Catholicism, let alone other religions, in allowing the development of an individual and as a counter to autocratic and hierarchical power. This idea of Protestantism’s superiority flourished in 19th century U.S. exceptionalist ideas. Protestantism, especially evangelical Protestantism, is still a vital component in American culture and identity. Exceptionalist ideas don’t just stem from the age of the American and French revolution, but go deeper.

However the United States was regarded by Europeans and Americans as exceptional long before the country was the largest economic, let along military power. The role of exceptionalism projected from the imagination of European, particularly western European history has a longer history going back to the discovery of the Americas, and the conception of the material abundance of both South and North America. Eventually the idea narrowed to center only on the United States by the time of the birth of the U.S. republic, when exceptionalism became associated with the liberal and individualist values that so many Americans still cherish. There is a pressing need to think more deeply about the history of the idea of exceptionalism and about the transnational context in which that idea was formed. This is yet another reason why transnational history is so important.

The idea of transnational history that I am developing is a way to contextualize U.S. exceptionalism, by showing the close connection between the United States and other countries. A summary of many of my views on this is found in the book Transnational Nation.

I would direct you also especially to my recent Reforming the World: The Creation of America’s Moral Empire. This book explains how the engagement of the United States with the world in the 1870s to 1890s was very great, and, from these encounters with the wider world feeding back into the United States, specific plans towards global expansionism and empire came into being, plans that increasingly relied after 1900 on the U.S. as a “moral” or “Christian” state seeking to establish a new international moral order. This touches on the theme of Manifest Destiny, which is certainly a major one in ideas of American exceptionalism.

• Sítio de Ian Tyrrell: http://iantyrrell.wordpress.com/

• Outros trabalhos de Ian Tyrrell citados como importantes por ele mesmo:

“American Exceptionalism and Anti-Americanism,” in Brendon O’Connor, ed., Anti-Americanism: History, Causes, and Themes. Vol. 2: Historical Perspectives (Oxford: Greenwood World Publishing, 2007), 99-117.

“American Exceptionalism and Uneven Global Integration: Pushes Away from the Global Society,” in Bruce Mazlish, Nayan Chanda and Kenneth Weisbrode, eds., The Paradox of a Global USA (Stanford, CA: Stanford U.P. 2007), pp. 64-80.