埃里克·塔克(Eric Tucker),是加拿大约克大学奥斯古德法学院(Osgoode Hall Law School)教授,主要著述有:《法律面前的劳工:加拿大工人的集体行动:1900—1948》(1)《管理劳动场所的危险:安大略省行业卫生与安全规定的法律和政治:1850—1914》(2)及数十篇学术论文。2014年9—10月,笔者作为加拿大约克大学的访问学者,就加拿大劳工法律史问题与塔克教授多次交谈。回国后,我们继续以邮件的方式进行交流。本文就是根据谈话和邮件内容整理而成。
American exceptionalism is the comparative study between the United States and the other Western countries,instead of a prejudice and ideology only,however,it has not been approached seriously by Chinese scholars.The paper firstly summarizes the development of American exceptionalism as a research subject,and then focus on one of its central topic studied by American scholars,“why there is no socialism in the U.S.”?In the end the author points out that,to study American exceptionalism will deepen our understanding of the essence of the U.S.,and improve our study of socialist and working class movements as well.