Topic Brief
Industriousness
Molly Keenom
GOVT-329 American Exceptionalism
8 February 2020
The four great traits of American Exceptionalism in early American life are religiosity,
community life, industriousness, and egalitarianism. The trait I have chosen to conduct my
research paper over is industriousness. Although all four traits are imperative to a country’s
survival and prosperity, industriousness lays the groundwork for economic growth for the
individual and the contribution to their community and/or colony. European visitors had mixed
opinions on early American life.
Generally, industriousness, as a trait, is defined as the propensity toward constant,
habitual working. However, the term can be defined differently when discussed in different
contexts. In American Exceptionalism: An Experiment in History, Charles Murray attributes
the American colonist’ economic flourishing to the strong industriousness shared by
communities. Murray defines the term as the idea that “life is to be spent getting ahead through
hard work… making a better life for oneself and one’s children.”1 Not only did early Americans
work hard to provide for themselves, they worked to ensure that their offspring would have a
simply comfortable life, and a head-start in their future, creating a cycle of hard work. A strong
work-ethic would be passed down from each generation, emphasizing self-reliance, a
“determination to be economically independent” and leading to the free-enterprise system
Americans still enjoy today.2 Matthew Spalding, Director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for
American Studies at The Heritage Foundation, notes that Americans are “among the most hard-
working… [people] in the world.”3 This hard work, or industriousness, meant that through hard
work and the possession and upkeep of personal property allowed “the right to bear the fruit of
1 Charles Murray, Charles. “The Elements of American Exceptionalism” In American Exceptionalism: An
Experiment in History. (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 2013), page numbers here. . VitalSource Library.
2 Ibid.
3 Matthew Spalding, "Why is America Exceptional?" The Heritage Foundation. October 1, 2010.
https://www.heritage.org/american-founders/report/why-america-exceptional (accessed February 8, 2020).
[one’s] own labor.”4 Although the colonies participated in communal servitude, most were
concerned with the success of their own crops, businesses, and families.
However, industriousness can also be defined with a negative connotation. Karl Marx, for
example, did not view industriousness and ceaseless hard work positively. Instead, Marx saw
industriousness “as a natural quality… caused by the illusory desire for money.”5 To obtain
property, goods, and services, one must have money to exchange, and one must work to obtain
money. Of course, Americans understood this, but are said to have taken the amount of work
they do for themselves or their families to the extreme simply for monetary gain and material
wealth. Marx’s definition is contrary to a Judeo-Christian view of work (even wage labor) as
moral.
In his book “A Nation Like No Other” Newt Gingrich explains that inherently, “work is a
moral good.”6 God made man in his own image, and first placed Adam “in the Garden of Eden to
work it and keep it” [Gen 2:15]. Americans took after the first people, following God’s
commands to “work heartily” to establish the Kingdom [Col. 3:23]. According to Gingrich, the
free-enterprise system created by American industriousness “rewarded work and risk taking,
incentivized discovery, and encouraged commerce.”7 The colonists, a strong God-fearing people,
unknowingly, were participating in what would become the freest, most successful, and
innovative economy ever begun. This emphasis on personal responsibility, hard work, and
generosity is still displayed in America’s currently booming economy, but may be disappearing
with the slow fade of religiosity of modern day Americans.
4 Spalding, “Why Is America Exceptional?” The Heritage Foundation.
5Alexis D. Litvine. "The Industrious Revolution, the Industriousness Discourse, and the Development of Modern
Economics." The Historical Journal 57, no. 2 (June 2014): 533.
6 Newt Gingrich, Newt. A Nation Like No Other: Why American Exceptionalism Matters. (Washington, DC:
Regnery, 2011), 101. RedShelf.
7Ibid, 102.
ReferencesBibliography
Gingrich, Newt. A Nation Like No Other: Why American Exceptionalism Matters. Washington,
DC: Regnery, 2011.
Litvine, Alexis D. "The Industrious Revolution, the Industriousness Discourse, and the
Development of Modern Economics." The Historical Journal 57, no. 2 (June 2014): 531-
570.
Murray, Charles. American Exceptionalism: An Experiment in History. Washington, DC: AEI
Press, 2013.
Spalding, Matthew. "Why is America Exceptional?" The Heritage Foundation. October 1, 2010.
https://www.heritage.org/american-founders/report/why-america-exceptional (accessed
February 8, 2020).
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