I subscribe to the monthly digest, Imprimis, which is produced by Hillsdale College. They can be mailed to one's address (free of charge, I might add) or found on the website for Hillsdale College. The latest issue was entitled, "Is America Exceptional" and a link to it is below. However, one comment within the article struck me as important, especially since I came from the area of the dust bowl. But, that is another story. This is the relevant part that I liked from the article:
"Tocqueville also put his finger on a second and related reason for the persistence of this particular feature of American exceptionalism: The word poor is used here in a relative, not an absolute sense. Poor men in America would often appear rich in comparison with the poor of Europe. A story I was once told by a Soviet dissident provides an amusing illustration. It seems that the Soviet authorities used to encourage the repeated screening of The Grapes of Wrath, a movie about the Great Depression-era migration of starving farmers from the Dust Bowl to California in their broken-down pickups. But contrary to expectation, what Soviet audiences got from this film was not an impression of how wretched was the plight of the poor in America. Instead they came away marveling that in America, even the peasants own trucks."
The article is not a short read, but it is very good.
Hillsdale College Imprimis Issue for October 2012
"Tocqueville also put his finger on a second and related reason for the persistence of this particular feature of American exceptionalism: The word poor is used here in a relative, not an absolute sense. Poor men in America would often appear rich in comparison with the poor of Europe. A story I was once told by a Soviet dissident provides an amusing illustration. It seems that the Soviet authorities used to encourage the repeated screening of The Grapes of Wrath, a movie about the Great Depression-era migration of starving farmers from the Dust Bowl to California in their broken-down pickups. But contrary to expectation, what Soviet audiences got from this film was not an impression of how wretched was the plight of the poor in America. Instead they came away marveling that in America, even the peasants own trucks."
The article is not a short read, but it is very good.
Hillsdale College Imprimis Issue for October 2012
