American idealism
New world hopefulness
American idealism is a broad term for the belief that the United States embodies or should embody certain lofty principles—liberty, democracy, equality, and opportunity—and that these ideals can guide both domestic policy and the nation's role in the world.
In foreign policy contexts, it often contrasts with realism, favoring moral considerations over purely strategic ones.
The phrase can be used approvingly to celebrate American aspirations or critically to suggest naivety about power and self-interest.
- patriotismDevotion to one's homeland
- abolitionismMovement to end oppression
- democracyRule by the people
- justiceFair treatment under law
- individualismDoctrine of personal independence
can-do spirit · liberty · free speech · land of opportunity · civil rights movement · egalitarianism · Progressive Era · universal rights · fairness · Reconstruction Era · human dignity · meritocracy · self-made man · republicanism · altruism · tolerance · New Deal · solidarity
- American Philosophypragmatism, William James, John Dewey, Ralph Waldo Emerson, transcendentalism
- philosophyethics, logic, metaphysics, ontology, epistemology
- TranscendentalismTranscendentalism, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walden, Walden Pond
American idealismrealpolitik
Politics prioritizing practicality over ethics
American idealismrevisionist history
Distorted account of past events
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