The Exceptionalist State and the State of Exception: Herman Melville's Billy Budd, Sailor

Critics predominantly view Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, Sailor as a “testament of acceptance,” the work of a man who had become politically conservative in his last years. William V. Spanos disagrees, arguing that the novella was not only a politically radical critique of American exceptionalism but also an eerie preview of the state of exception employed, most recently, by the George W. Bush administration in the post–9/11 War on Terror.

While Billy Budd, Sailor is ostensibly about the Na...