Praise for American Exceptionalism and American Innocence

“Danny Haiphong and Roberto Sirvent are two of the most courageous and truthful intellectuals in the belly of the U.S. imperial beast! In this powerful text they lay bare the hidden realities and concealed miseries of poor and working peoples even as revolutionary fire remains strong! This book keeps alive so much of the best of the radical tradition in the neo-fascist age of Trump!”

—Cornel West, Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University

“American Exceptionalism and American Innocence provides an astute, engaging, and provocative look into how the human toll of U.S. colonial occupation, imperial expansion, and structural racism is subsumed into an overarching narrative of the ‘greater good.’ By exposing the ideology of innocence that inevitably accompanies exceptionalism, Roberto Sirvent and Danny Haiphong move us beyond the constraints of liberal engagement to question our presumptions about what ‘America’ means. These short, topical essays expose the American exceptionalism we encounter in everyday life, thereby providing a roadmap for how it can be challenged. A unique resource for students and teachers, grassroots activists, and anyone who wants to stop circling the same rock and have an actually interesting conversation.”

—Natsu Taylor Saito, author of Meeting the Enemy: American Exceptionalism and International Law

“The extreme danger of America to the rest of us remains the great unspoken, lost in myths, or what Larry David called ‘a babbling brook of bullshit.’ Witty terms such as ‘exceptionalism’ and ‘democracy’ are deployed as the bombs fall and the blood never dries. In this outstanding study, Danny Haiphong and Roberto Sirvent tell us why: and why Trump is merely a symptom and that only our urgent enlightenment can defy the inevitable.”

—John Pilger, Australian journalist and BAFTA award-winning documentary filmmaker

“Roberto Sirvent and Danny Haiphong deliver a stirring indictment of ruling class propaganda. By carefully exposing the destructive myths that sustain U.S. empire, this book provides an intellectual anchor that will surely disrupt and unsettle the powers that be.”

—Cynthia McKinney, Professor and Activist, former six-term member of the United States House of Representatives

“In this timely, multi-layered, brilliantly argued counter-history, Sirvent and Haiphong draw on case studies ranging from the nation’s settler colonial past to the Trumpist present so as to open spaces needed to imagine socially transformative alternatives to the white-supremacist, imperial policies that the discourse of American exceptionalism and the doctrine of American innocence have worked relentlessly to normalize.”

—Donald E. Pease, Avalon Foundation Professor of the Humanities at Dartmouth College and director of the Futures of American Studies Institute

“America’s decline toward national madness has become so multi-faceted that narrow analysis can no longer explain it. This wide-ranging book seeks to weave our history and our modern-day reality together. It may seem radical, but it is not as radical as what our leaders are doing today to suppress human freedom at home and abroad.”

—Stephen Kinzer, former New York Times correspondent, author of Overthrow and All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror

“A varied offering of America’s real history, with sharp arguments and revealing information drawn down through the centuries—a rich treat for both beginners and the well-informed.”

—Michael Parenti, author of History as Mystery and Contrary Notions

“American Exceptionalism and American Innocence does what is so needed in this, the late stage of American Empire—it blasts a hole through the notion that the US is some unique beacon for democracy and freedom in the world, and that it is therefore privileged to intervene throughout the world at will. Rather, as this book demonstrates, the US has never been such a beacon, either nationally or internationally. The US was built on genocide and slavery, and, accordingly, has invaded weaker countries to impose systems which protect the privileged few from the just demands of the struggling masses. The result has been vast inequality and suffering in both the US and abroad, and the undermining, if not wholesale destruction, of democracy. As this book shows us, US Empire is the greatest threat to the survival of humanity, and it is only the citizens of the US who can, and indeed must, dismantle it.”

—Dan Kovalik, author of The Plot to Scapegoat Russia and The Plot to Attack Iran

“Timely, historic, and analytically rich, Roberto Sirvent and Danny Haiphong rightfully challenge the hegemonic narrative of American innocence and American exceptionalism that pervade contemporary culture. Examining monuments, memory, media, and movies, alongside of political slogans, sports culture and social movements, this book offers a powerful intervention, demanding that we account for the bipartisan project of hyper nationalism and narratives of America’s unique greatness. Providing historic lessons, tools of literary analysis, a critical gaze, and so much more, this book takes you on an important journey, preparing all readers for the current moment and a progressive future.”

—David J. Leonard, author of Playing While White: Privilege and Power on and off the Field

“In their essays on race, empire and historical memory, Roberto Sirvent and Danny Haiphong skillfully unveil the profound hypocrisy and inherent barbarism of the US state, stripping away its respectable forms and forcing it to go naked. The book is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the US empire as it is, rather than as it would like to be understood.”

—Stephen Gowans, author of Washington’s Long War on Syria and Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Fight for Freedom