About this item
Why did Donald Trump follow Barack Obama into the White House? Why is America so polarized? And how does American exceptionalism explain these social changes? In this provocative book, Mugambi Jouet describes why Americans are far more divided than other Westerners over basic issues, including wealth inequality, health care, climate change, evolution, gender roles, abortion, gay rights, sex, gun control, mass incarceration, the death penalty, torture, human rights, and war. Raised in Paris by a French mother and Kenyan father, Jouet then lived in the Bible Belt, Manhattan, and beyond. Drawing inspiration from Alexis de Tocqueville, he wields his multicultural sensibility to parse how the intense polarization of U.S. conservatives and liberals has become a key dimension of American exceptionalism - an idea widely misunderstood as American superiority.
About the Author
An author specialized on the intriguing evolution of American democracy, politics, and culture, Mugambi Jouet teaches at Stanford Law School. He is the author of "Exceptional America: What Divides Americans From the World and From Each Other" (University of California Press, 2017) , a comprehensive book on the relationship between "American exceptionalism" and the intense polarization of modern America during the Bush, Obama, and Trump presidencies.
His articles have notably been featured in Mother Jones, The New Republic, Slate, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Huffington Post, The Hill, Libération, Le Nouvel Observateur, and Le Monde, France's flagship newspaper. Raised in Paris by a French mother and Kenyan father, Jouet then lived in the Bible Belt, Manhattan, and beyond. Drawing inspiration from Alexis de Tocqueville and his multicultural background, Jouet's writing explores what distinguishes America from the rest of the world, for better or worse.
