"God damn the United States for its vile conduct in the Philippine Islands,” James confided to a correspondent….”We had supposed ourselves (with all our crudity and barbarity in certain ways) a better nation morally than the rest, safe at home, and without the old savage ambition, destined to exert great international influence by throwing in our “moral weight,” etc.—dreams! Human nature is everywhere the same; and at the least temptation all the old military passions rise, and sweep everything before them."

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—William James, on American exceptionalism, in Jackson Lears, Rebirth of a Nation, p. 219, (New York: HarperCollins, 2009).

Every generation unlearns its myths, even if the myths themselves were important.

The Filipinos were on the receiving end of the “blessings of liberty and civilization” that the Republican party platform of 1900 promised, and the willingness and good cheer with which America went to war disconcerted James. For him, America had “puked up its ancient soul, …[its dream of serving as a moral example to mankind] in five minutes without a hint of squeamishness.” (p. 219) James was critiquing America’s founding myths, but it was important that he believed in them first. That back and forth between great expectations and perpetual disappointment may very well make America exceptional.