Richard Gamble on Charles Murray

"American exceptionalism" has become wedded to modern nationalism; politicians and journalists invoke it as a creedal affirmation endorsing a range of policy agendas. Charles Murray's book American Exceptionalism is more cautious than most takes on the topic, Richard Gamble writes, and its claims are relatively circumspect. But it is still part of an odd national pastime, one we might have expected Americans to have outgrown by now.