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Chosen People: The Big Idea that Shapes England and America

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If you wonder why so many Americans and English people are convinced that their respective countries are better than others, this book will explain all. Through the Catholic belief that the Church had replaced the Jews as God's chosen people, and the English Reformation view that England - Church and State - had replaced the Roman Church as God's chosen, Americans came to see their Independence as the sign that they had replaced the English. Although ordinary people are not aware of the complex history behind their ideas, they continue to nurse their sense of moral superiority. It is an attitude guaranteed to breed resentment and hatred in the rest of the world, and it has got the two countries into deep trouble in Muslim countries. If diagnosis is the first step to healing, this book should help to cure Anglo-American arrogance. The scholarship is serious and solid, but the writing is never turgid, and there are plenty of surprises along the way.

Any book with such an ambitious scope is bound to be imperfect, and flubs are easy enough to find in this one. The better you know any of the numerous specialized areas Longley touches on, the more likely you are to find some bone to pick. It is to Longley's credit, however, that he took on a task specialists would be too prudent to tackle, and that he succeeded in contributing valuable insights into the "chosen-people syndrome," in which a powerful myth sustains exceptionalist thinking and behavior, even in defiance of experience and logic.