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In his final State of the Union address, President Obama called America \u201cthe most powerful nation on Earth,\u201d saying, \u201cWhen it comes to every important international issue, people of the world do not look to Beijing or Moscow to lead\u2014they call us.\u201d President Obama is hardly the first leader to talk about American exceptionalism. But just how \u201cexceptional\u201d is America? And why does it matter? In this episode of BackStory, we\u2019ll go behind the rhetoric to unpack the history and meaning of the term and assess the changing meanings of \u201cAmerican exceptionalism\u201d over time.\n
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