Abstract
There are a lot of productive and beneficial instruments for understanding the United States of America, american history or evolution of american identity. One of those is also a not so often mentioned concept of american exceptionalism, which deals with an idea of national difference, national uniqueness and national superiorty.
Because exceptionalism is clearly a far less obvious concept than most suppose, this text begins by short looking at the different ways in which we can think about it. After the brief prologue this paper focuses on one of the most important meanings of exceptionalism - the belief of Americans that the United States were/are unique society with a special destiny.
At first the article follows the puritan roots and then the transformations of this belief, which was so strong and influential among Americans especially during the eighteenth and nineteenth century - even in its modified, secular forms. The substance of the exceptionalist rhetoric of national uniqueness had changed in the course of time, moving inexorably from religion to politics, however, the nature of rhetoric remained essentially the same.