All of this made Amer*ica an outlier compared with England, which wasan outlier compared with Europe. The U.S. was the spawn of Englishliberalism, fated to carry it out to its logical conclusion and becomethe most liberal polity ever known to man.
America was blessedly unencumbered by an ancien regime.Compared with Europe, it had no church hierarchy, no aristocracy, noentrenched economic interests, no ingrained distaste for commercialactivity. It almost entirely lacked the hallmarks of a traditionalpost-feudal agrarian society. It was as close as you could get to JohnLocke’s state of nature. It was ruled from England, but lightly; EdmundBurke famously described English rule here as “salutary neglect.” Evenbefore the Rev*olution, America was the freest country on earth.