Americentrism

Not to be confused with Americanism or American exceptionalism.
A 1912 newspaper cartoon highlighting the United States' influence in Latin America following the Monroe Doctrine

Americentrism, also known as American-centrism[1] or US-centrism, is a tendency to assume the culture of the United States is more important than those of other countries or to judge foreign cultures based on American cultural standards. It refers to the practice of viewing the world from an overly US-focused perspective, with an implied belief, either consciously or subconsciously, in the preeminence of American culture.[2]

The term is not to be confused with American exceptionalism, which is the assertion that the United States is qualitatively different from other nations and is often accompanied by the notion that the United States has superiority over every other nation.[3]

  1. ^ William R. Thompson, "Global War and the Foundations of US Systemic Leadership", chap. 7 in America, War and Power: Defining the State, 1775–2005, eds. Lawrence Sondhaus and A. James Fuller (Abingdon, Oxon, UK: 2007), 146 ("The customary approach to accounting for the rise of the United States to global primacy is descriptive, American-centric, and heavily reliant on the distinctiveness of the ascent.").
  2. ^ NI, Chun-yan (2008). "Analysis of ethnocentrism" (PDF). US-China Foreign Language. p. 78. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 3, 2013. Retrieved March 20, 2009.
  3. ^ American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword. Seymour Martin Lipset. New York, N.Y.: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc. 1996. p. 18.