Exploring Puritan Hard Work Ethic in American Exceptionalism

Abstract

American Exceptionalism is the belief that the Unites States of America is an extraordinary nation that should serve as a model community for the rest of the world and which had a great role to play in the human history .Indeed this nation is endowed with a specific uniqueness and superiority. Despite that the subject of American Exceptionalism has been always a controversial subject between several writers ,many scholars tried to provide different justifications for American Exceptionalism among which we can cite as an example the absence of feudalism ,being the land of opportunities ,the spirit of the American Revolutionary War .However one major feature of the American Exceptionalism is concerned with the Protestant work ethic. The latter was rooted within the American culture since the first time when those Puritans migrated from their home land , settled in the New World and considered it their promised land .Puritanism was a genuine movement that emerged during the 17th Century after the Protestant Reformation under the leadership of Martin Luther and John Calvin .That stream had great influence on American culture and is considered till nowadays a driving force of the American society as a whole. Puritan’ s legacy still affect American behavior through one major value which is the Protestant Work Ethic. This concept is the core existence of the American culture and was strongly believed to pave the path to the spirit of capitalism. Protestant Work Ethic gave a cardinal importance to work because it had a spiritual aim linked to God’s grace and a worldly one related to the supplying one’s own needs .Therefore through that process of wealth accumulation , the spirit of capitalism emerged which paved the way to modern capitalism