The concept of American exceptionalism was used to search for the peculiar and unique in American identity, character and history, and to describe the 'more perfect society', the 'best political system', and its high values, superiority etc. According to its supporters and believers, American unique political philosophy and its democracy provided the best model also for other nations. Certainly, such rhetoric gave also a lot of counter-arguments to many skeptics and critics of the idea of the US exceptionalism. The meaning of exceptionalism is pretty capacious and Americans quite easily redefine it while finding many other useful definitions of their uniqueness. One of the most and better known around the world is the belief that the United States was a country of 'progress', an 'opportunity, abundance and plenty', and sort of 'promising land' for the newcomers. In a sense America is exceptional, the more so that the faith in the uniqueness of its experience, destiny and the idea of promotion of its ideas and progress in the world (e.g. mission) were inherent parts of American history. Perhaps America was rather less exceptional than it was imagined and propagated by its believers. Exceptionalist tendencies, positive or negative, have not vanished till now and wouldn't totally disappear. We may also simply conclude that the topic of exceptionalism is not distinctively American one because it is pretty hard to find a country and/or nation that had not developed the concept of its uniqueness at certain period of its history.
Now for over 70 years people have been arguing about the reasons for dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. American researchers are still divided over the issue of the purpose, effect and consequences of their use as well as moral evaluation of this American action. The polarized discussion has to a great degree focused on the traditional interpretation, on the one hand, claiming it was indispensable to finish the war and minimalize American losses; on the other hand, stating that – with Japan almost defeated and ready for capitulation – it was unnecessary. With time, the issue of competition and confrontation with the Russians was raised, questioning military considerations used for decades by the subsequent governmental circles. In historical literature one may also frequently come across indications of prejudice towards the Japanese and the need to avenge Pearl Harbor. According to the polls conducted in 1945, the majority of Americans (85%) approved of President Harry Truman’s decision and the use of atomic weapons against Japan. With time and the disclosure of the data concerning the effects of the use of this devastating weapon against civilians, and in particular, the effects and diseases caused by the radiation, a part of American society began to have their moral concerns. Thus, their approval kept falling with time: from 85% in 1945 to 72% in 1965, to 65% in 1988, to 53% in 1990. Album publications, movies, autobiographies, memoirs and interviews with the witnesses of those events, monuments, sculptures, musical pieces, paintings as well as numerous historical and popular works, and the omnipresent Internet have brought into the public circulation broader knowledge concerning the reasons and circumstances of dropping atomic bombs on the Japanese cities in August 1945. They enabled the subsequent American and Japanese generations to have deeper reflections on these painful and controversial events.
Hugh S. Gibson był pierwszym przedstawicielem dyplomatycznym Stanów Zjednoczonych w Polsce po I wojnie światowej. Jako poseł kierował amerykańską placówką dyplomatyczną Warszawie w latach w latach 1919–1924. Był profesjonalistą, dobrze zorientowanym – o czym świadczą jego raporty dyplomatyczne – w realiach polityczno-gospodarczych II RP oraz Europy Środkowo- Wschodniej. Nawiązał i rozbudował kontakty z polskimi elitami rządowymi, zwłaszcza z Ignacym Paderewskim. Odegrał ważną rolę w tworzeniu zespołu poselstwa i rozwoju stosunków polsko-amerykańskich w szczególnie trudnym okresie powojennym. Amerykański dyplomata wykazywał sporo zrozumienia i życzliwości wobec Polski, choć z czasem rozczarował się i zdystansował wobec wielu spraw kraju swego urzędowania.
In 1925 Vladimir Mayakovsky travelled to America. He reached New York on July 30, 1925, meeting his readers, giving interviews and sightseeing. He also visited Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, where he read his poems, talked about the Soviet Union and shared his impressions of his US travel. His three-month stay (from the end of July 1925 to the end of October 1925) resulted in writing “Stichi ob Amierikie” and a travelog “Moje odkrytije Amieriki” (Moscow 1926), which many years later was also published in the Polish edition (Warsaw 1950).Mayakovski’s poems and reportage on America reflect his observational talent and brilliant sarcasm, which, however, are not devoid of ideology and propaganda. The poet, fascinated by modernization, mechanization and electrification, described the “country of dollar”, “car civilization”, standardization, prosperity and dynamic development, not without recognition and appreciation. At the same time he wrote critically, and sometimes maliciously, about such social problems of America of that time as racism, imperialism, etc.
Anniversary rituals commemorating WWI in the form of very symbolic red poppies developed in Great Britain in 1918-1921 and are still continued today. In the interwar period, the Great War memory was particularly dynamically commemorated because veterans, participants and witnesses of the war together with their families and friends who remembered the war were still alive and took part in anniversary rituals, particularly at the Cenotaph and Tomb of Unknown Soldier in Westminster Abbey, as well as celebrations held in the Empire’s military cemeteries. Official celebrations were always accompanied by a certain ideological message to justify the sense of immense losses suffered in result of this unreasonable carnage. For this reason, the ideal of a “honorable gentleman” and honors for serving the King and Country dominated a verbal message of the Great War, which was also reflected in the form, shape, epitaphs and inscriptions on thousands of then erected memorials and in military cemeteries in Europe and all over the world. The British memory of the Great War and the way it was commemorated, however, was diversified from the very beginning, which was confirmed, among others, by an apparent dichotomy between rituals and ceremonies held by the veterans and civilians, or war memories of men and women, as well as its image depicted in the literature and historiography shaping the picture and memory of these events.