---
title: Reason for Oklahoma Fight Over AP US History: American Exceptionalism
description: It's a concept nearly as old as the country, but that doesn't mean everyone agrees about it
canonical: https://time.com/3713618/ap-u-s-history-curriculum/
author: Lily Rothman
article:opinion: false
article:content_tier: free
article:published_time: 2015-02-18T20:36:43.000Z
article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:40:51.020Z
article:section: History
og:title: Reason for Oklahoma Fight Over AP US History: American Exceptionalism
og:description: It's a question of American exceptionalism — and what it means
og:url: https://time.com/3713618/ap-u-s-history-curriculum/
og:site_name: TIME
og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24d36a5eb0881a0/69877fcc8e06010b6345a5c0/protest.jpeg?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9
og:image:width: 1200
og:image:height: 675
og:image:alt: Students Protest School Board's Censorship Of History Curriculum
og:type: article
twitter:card: summary_large_image
twitter:title: Reason for Oklahoma Fight Over AP US History: American Exceptionalism
twitter:description: It's a question of American exceptionalism — and what it means
twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24d36a5eb0881a0/69877fcc8e06010b6345a5c0/protest.jpeg?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9
---
# Why States Are Fighting About American History Class
## Video: Is the Six-Year High School the Future of Education?
[Watch (HLS stream): Is the Six-Year High School the Future of Education?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/73aj2Sft.m3u8) (4:20)
_Published 2014-02-12. Watch how a six-year high school in Brooklyn could be the model for education in the information economy._
by
[Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)
## Lily Rothman
Rothman is managing editor at TIME.
Feb 18, 2015 8:36 PM UTC
Students protest school board's censorship of history curriculum on Oct. 2, 2014 in Golden, Colo.
Students protest school board's censorship of history curriculum on Oct. 2, 2014 in Golden, Colo.Jason Bahr—Getty Images for MoveOn.org Civic Action
by
[Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)
## Lily Rothman
Rothman is managing editor at TIME.
Feb 18, 2015 8:36 PM UTC
The Oklahoma state legislature [passed](http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/cf/2015-16%20SUPPORT%20DOCUMENTS/votes/House/HB1380%5FVOTES.HTM) a [bill](http://time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/hb1380%5Fhflr.pdf) this week directing its education board to “adopt a certain United States History program” that would be offered to students instead of the Advanced Placement course on the same topic, which legislators have accused of representing the nation in a negative light.
It’s the latest round in an ongoing fight over changes made to the A.P. U.S. History program for this school year — Colorado [drew protests over just such a fight ](http://time.com/3460462/colorado-curriculum-changes/)this past fall, and, as _ThinkProgress_ [reports](http://thinkprogress.org/education/2015/02/17/3623683/oklahoma-lawmakers-vote-overwhleming-ban-advanced-placement-history-class/), similar fights have sprung up in several other states — and a perfect illustration of why the matter is unlikely to be resolved any time soon.
Here’s what the Oklahoma bill says: the new curriculum must include many of the “founding documents” of the nation, as well as those relating to the “foundation or maintenance of the representative form of limited government, the free-market economic system and American exceptionalism”; schools that stick with the A.P. curriculum will lose funding for the program.
The list of particular documents that Oklahoma students must study includes some obvious items — the Mayflower Compact, the Bill of Rights — as well as several unarguably important but perhaps less foundational documents, like Ronald Reagan’s speech on the 40th anniversary of D-Day.
Although the legislators have a variety of issues with the A.P. program, Tulsa _World_ [reported](http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/government/oklahoma-legislative-committee-questions-legality-of-advanced-placement-courses-in/article%5F2b257556-b62c-5a92-862e-8e9821a29bbc.html) that the bill’s author Rep. Dan Fisher said during debate on the legislation that he targeted the U.S. History course because the new curriculum doesn’t give enough weight to American exceptionalism.
But what would it mean for a curriculum to focus on American exceptionalism? The idea seems easy enough to grasp — in 1988, TIME [defined](http://time.com/vault/issue/1988-01-11/page/16) it as “the divine dispensation that the nation thought it enjoyed in the world”; in other words, the idea that America is special — but, though it’s nearly as old as the nation to which it refers, its meaning is still up for debate.
For one thing — though versions of the concept go back to the founding of the United States and the Puritan notion of the “city on the hill” — the actual phrase has murky origins. It’s often attributed erroneously to Alexis de Tocqueville, the 19th-century French sociological observer of American mores, who noted the ways in which the new nation differed from its old-world origins. Others have [traced](http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/03/how-joseph-stalin-invented-american-exceptionalism/254534/) the coinage to the unlikely source of Joseph Stalin, who used it to explain why America was slow to take to Communism (which, he naturally thought, was a bad thing), though the myth that he came up with the wording has been [debunked](http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon%5Fvalley/2013/09/27/american%5Fexceptionalism%5Fneither%5Fjoseph%5Fstalin%5Fnor%5Falexis%5Fde%5Ftocqueville.html) with evidence that the word “exceptionalism” was in use at least as early as the Civil War era.
In recent years it’s been getting a lot more play — Google [shows](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=%22American+exceptionalism%22&year%5Fstart=1800&year%5Fend=2015&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct%5Furl=t1%3B%2C%22%20American%20exceptionalism%20%22%3B%2Cc0) growth since around 1950, with a sharp uptick in the last two decades, starting right around when Seymour Martin Lipset wrote the book [_American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword_](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/americanexceptionalism.htm) — and President Obama, often in response to claims that he doesn’t think his country is special enough, has become one of its most vocal boosters. “\[Having a global childhood\] has reinforced my belief in American exceptionalism,” [he told TIME in 2008](http://time.com/vault/issue/2008-09-01/page/40/). “One of the things that happens when you live overseas is you realize how special America is–our values, our ideals, our Constitution, our rule of law, the idea of equality and opportunity. Those are things that we often take for granted, and it’s only when you get out of the country that you see the majority of the world doesn’t enjoy those same privileges.”
### Bringing Color to Presidents Past
Col. Theodore Roosevelt with a dead elephant at Meru, Kenya. The Siena Research Institute (SRI) at Siena College often releases complex expert rankings of all U.S. Presidents. In 2010, the SRI Survey Ranked Roosevelt the #2 President of All Time. Roosevelt took top marks in the survey's categories for 'Imagination,' 'Willingness to Take Risks', 'Court Appointments' and 'Intelligence.' Library of Congress
Col. Theodore Roosevelt with a dead elephant at Meru, Kenya. Original Image by Kermit Roosevelt / Library of Congress
c. 1908\. Grover Cleveland, half-length portrait, seated at desk. Ranked #20 in SRI Survey of U.S. Presidents. Photo colorization by Sanna Dullaway for TIME / Original Image (c) The New York Herald Company / Library of Congress
c. 1908\. Grover Cleveland, half-length portrait, seated at desk. Original Image (c) The New York Herald Company / Library of Congress
March 5, 1917\. Woodrow Wilson and his wife Edith Bolling Wilson riding in the backseat of a carriage on their way to his second inauguration. Ranked #8 in SRI survey of U.S. Presidents. Photo colorization by Sanna Dullaway for TIME / Original Image National Photo Company Collection / Library of Congress
March 5, 1917\. Woodrow Wilson and his wife Edith Bolling Wilson riding in the backseat of a carriage on their way to his second inauguration. Original Image National Photo Company Collection / Library of Congress
June 5, 1944\. General Dwight D. Eisenhower gives the order of the day, "Full victory--nothing else" to paratroopers somewhere in England, just before they board their airplanes to participate in the first assault in the invasion of the continent of Europe. Ranked #10 in SRI survey of U.S. Presidents. Photo colorization by Sanna Dullaway for TIME / Original Image by Library of Congress
June 5, 1944\. General Dwight D. Eisenhower gives the order of the day, "Full victory--nothing else" to paratroopers somewhere in England, just before they board their airplanes to participate in the first assault in the invasion of the continent of Europe. Original Image by Library of Congress
c. April 19, 1945\. Harry Truman, half-length portrait, seated at desk, facing front, holding pencil. Ranked #9 in SRI survey of U.S. Presidents. Photo colorization by Sanna Dullaway for TIME / Original Image (c) Chase-Statler, Washington / Library of Congress
c. April 19, 1945\. Harry Truman, half-length portrait, seated at desk, facing front, holding pencil. Original Image (c) Chase-Statler, Washington / Library of Congress
c. June 7, 1898\. William McKinley, full length portrait, seated at desk, facing right. Ranked #21 in SRI survey of U.S. Presidents. Photo colorization by Sanna Dullaway for TIME / Original Image (c) Frances Benjamin Johnston / Library of Congress
c. June 7, 1898\. William McKinley, full length portrait, seated at desk, facing right. Original Image (c) Frances Benjamin Johnston / Library of Congress
June 12, 1971\. President Richard Nixon standing in a crowd of people at daughter Tricia Nixon's wedding at the White House. Ranked #30 in SRI survey of U.S. Presidents. Photo colorization by Sanna Dullaway for TIME / Original Image by Warren K. Leffler / Library of Congress
June 12, 1971\. President Richard Nixon standing in a crowd of people at daughter Tricia Nixon's wedding at the White House. Original Image by Warren K. Leffler / Library of Congress
Nov. 8, 1863\. Formal portrait of Abraham Lincoln. Ranked #3 in SRI survey of U.S. Presidents, Lincoln received highest marks in the 'Ability to Compromise' and 'Domestic Accomplishments' categories. Photo colorization by Sanna Dullaway for TIME / Original image by Alexander Gardner / Library of Congress
![Abraham Lincoln, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing front. Date Created/Published: \[photograph taken 1863 Nov. 8; printed later and c1900\]. Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt50173a166c4994f5/69877f4535ba6f04a1c0710d/presidents-past-14.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp)
Nov. 8, 1863\. Formal portrait of Abraham Lincoln. Original image by Alexander Gardner / Library of Congress
September, 1955\. Lyndon B. Johnson, half length portrait, left profile, looking out a window. Ranked #16 in SRI Survey of U.S. Presidents, Johnson is rated #1 for his 'Relationship with Congress' but falls in last place for his 'Foreign Policy Accomplishments.' Photo colorization by Sanna Dullaway for TIME / Original Image by Thomas J. O'Halloran / Library of Congress
September, 1955\. Lyndon B. Johnson, half length portrait, left profile, looking out a window. Original Image by Thomas J. O'Halloran / Library of Congress
September 12, 1953\. John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier on their wedding day. Ranked #11 in SRI Survey of American Presidents, Kennedy is ranked 4th in 'Communication', 6th in 'Ability to Compromise', 6th in 'Executive Appointments' and 7th in 'Imagination'. Photo colorization by Sanna Dullaway for TIME / Original Image by Toni Frissell / Library of Congress
September 12, 1953\. John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier on their wedding day. Original Image by Toni Frissell / Library of Congress
March 4, 1933\. Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover in a convertible automobile on their way to the U.S. Capitol for Roosevelt's inauguration. FDR was ranked #1 on SRI's Survey of U.S. Presidents, holding the top spot in categories like 'Handling of the U.S. Economy,' 'Foreign Policy Accomplishments' and 'Party Leadership.' Photo colorization by Sanna Dullaway for TIME / Original Image by Library of Congress
March 4, 1933\. Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover in a convertible automobile on their way to the U.S. Capitol for Roosevelt's inauguration. Library of Congress
June 11 or 12, 1864\. General Ulysses S. Grant at City Point. Ranked #26 in SRI Survey of American Presidents, Grant remained in the bottom five Presidents of the survey through the 1980s and 1990s before being bumped up the list. Photo colorization by Sanna Dullaway for TIME / Original Image by Library of Congress
June 11 or 12, 1864\. General Ulysses S. Grant at City Point. Library of Congress
And yet, as pointed out by a 2012 [essay](http://time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/ceaser.pdf) by James W. Ceaser in the journal _American Political Thought,_ there are multiple ways to understand the phrase. For one thing, though the word “exceptional” has positive overtones, it can also be a neutral description of difference; he writes that, in terms of sociology, the latter is more common and can be used to discuss the negative qualities of a culture that make it an exception to the norm. (For example: the Communist view that America is exceptional due to its failure to inspire a workers’ movement.) And secondly, he writes, the dominant idea that the nation has a special mission can mean a variety of things, from a religious sense of purpose to a political mission to spread democracy.
During the debate in Oklahoma, a representative of the College Board [objected](http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/government/oklahoma-legislative-committee-questions-legality-of-advanced-placement-courses-in/article%5F2b257556-b62c-5a92-862e-8e9821a29bbc.html) that the claim that the curriculum ignored exceptionalism was “not true.” After all, he pointed out, the framework of the course doesn’t actually dictate which moments or ideas can be used to teach its “[thematic learning objectives](http://time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/ap-us-history-course-and-exam-description.pdf)” (identity; work, exchange and technology; people; politics and power; America in the world; environment and geography; and idea, beliefs and culture).
But whether the accusation is “true” depends, ultimately, on how one views American exceptionalism. Is it a purely academic matter of historical ideology? A matter of mere distinction? Or a matter of being not just different, but also special and better? It’s a tough question, but as the fight over school curricula moves forward, one group of Americans is left uniquely positioned to debate it: high-school students.
_Read next:_ [_The Myth of Neutrality in American Sporting Culture_](http://time.com/3676555/neutrality-in-sports/?xid=time%5Freadnext)
[_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/?sl%5Fautoplay=true&xid=spl-fullbrief-article)
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