The Irony of American History
E480389
The Irony of American History is a seminal 1952 work of Christian realism in which theologian Reinhold Niebuhr critiques American exceptionalism and explores the moral contradictions of U.S. power in the Cold War era.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Irony of American History canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T4930602 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Irony of American History Context triple: [Reinhold Niebuhr, notableWork, The Irony of American History]
-
A.
The Cycles of American History
The Cycles of American History is a historical analysis book by Arthur Schlesinger Jr. that interprets U.S. history as a series of recurring political and ideological cycles.
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B.
The Meaning of History
The Meaning of History is a philosophical work by Russian religious thinker Nicolas Berdyaev that explores the spiritual and existential significance of historical events and humanity’s destiny.
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C.
The Discovery of What It Means to Be an American
"The Discovery of What It Means to Be an American" is an essay by James Baldwin that reflects on national identity, race, and belonging, particularly through his experiences living abroad.
-
D.
A People’s History of the United States
A People’s History of the United States is a landmark revisionist history book that retells American history from the perspective of marginalized and oppressed groups rather than political and economic elites.
-
E.
New Viewpoints in American History
New Viewpoints in American History is a seminal collection of historical essays by Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. that helped reshape interpretations of U.S. history in the early 20th century.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Irony of American History Target entity description: The Irony of American History is a seminal 1952 work of Christian realism in which theologian Reinhold Niebuhr critiques American exceptionalism and explores the moral contradictions of U.S. power in the Cold War era.
-
A.
The Cycles of American History
The Cycles of American History is a historical analysis book by Arthur Schlesinger Jr. that interprets U.S. history as a series of recurring political and ideological cycles.
-
B.
The Meaning of History
The Meaning of History is a philosophical work by Russian religious thinker Nicolas Berdyaev that explores the spiritual and existential significance of historical events and humanity’s destiny.
-
C.
The Discovery of What It Means to Be an American
"The Discovery of What It Means to Be an American" is an essay by James Baldwin that reflects on national identity, race, and belonging, particularly through his experiences living abroad.
-
D.
A People’s History of the United States
A People’s History of the United States is a landmark revisionist history book that retells American history from the perspective of marginalized and oppressed groups rather than political and economic elites.
-
E.
New Viewpoints in American History
New Viewpoints in American History is a seminal collection of historical essays by Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. that helped reshape interpretations of U.S. history in the early 20th century.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
non-fiction book ⓘ theological work ⓘ |
| addresses |
danger of self-righteousness in foreign policy
ⓘ
limits of national virtue ⓘ responsibility of powerful nations ⓘ |
| advocates |
Christian realism
ⓘ
moral humility in politics ⓘ recognition of human sinfulness ⓘ |
| author | Reinhold Niebuhr ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| critiques |
American exceptionalism
ⓘ
liberal optimism ⓘ naive moralism in foreign policy ⓘ utopianism in politics ⓘ |
| describes |
moral contradictions of U.S. power
ⓘ
tension between ideals and interests in U.S. policy ⓘ |
| genre |
Christian realism
ⓘ
political philosophy ⓘ political theology ⓘ |
| hasPerspective |
anti-perfectionist
ⓘ
anti-utopian ⓘ realist ⓘ |
| historicalContext |
early Cold War
ⓘ
post-World War II era ⓘ |
| influenced |
American political thought
ⓘ
Christian political ethics ⓘ Cold War intellectual debates ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Augustinian thought
ⓘ
Christian theology ⓘ Reformation theology ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
American exceptionalism
ⓘ
American history ⓘ Christian ethics ⓘ Cold War ⓘ U.S. foreign policy ⓘ human limitations ⓘ irony in history ⓘ original sin ⓘ power and morality ⓘ |
| notableFor |
critique of American innocence narrative
ⓘ
enduring influence on debates about American power ⓘ integration of theology and international relations ⓘ |
| placeOfPublication | New York City ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1952 ⓘ |
| publisher | Charles Scribner's Sons ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Irony of American History Description of subject: The Irony of American History is a seminal 1952 work of Christian realism in which theologian Reinhold Niebuhr critiques American exceptionalism and explores the moral contradictions of U.S. power in the Cold War era.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.