COMM 149F - Rhetoric of American Exceptionalism

	Dr. Andrew Wood Office: HGH 210; phone: (408) 924-5378 Andrew.Wood@sjsu.edu

Rhetoric of American Exceptionalism


"There is no body but consists of parts and that which knits these parts together, gives the body its perfection, because it makes each part so contiguous to others as thereby they do mutually participate with each other." - John Winthrop's "Model of Christian Charity"

Overview

We explore enlightenment and jeremiadic rhetorics, imagining the New World as an intersection between religion, science, polity, and commerce. Particularly, we examine "America" as a site through which a supposedly fallen people may be redeemed - as long as they reinsert the renaissance self within a tightly knit community.

Summary

Andrew Wood's summary of John Winthrop's Model of Christian Charity

Additional Notes

Andrew Wood's notes on the American Jeremiad

Image Credit

Anthony van Dyck (1889) [Wikipedia]