?The absence of socialism in the United States is one of the most classic questions of the theoretical and political sociology to which Seymour M. Lipset has devoted numerous publications. For half a century, through various approaches and different areas, he revisited the problematic of American exceptionalism, subjecting it every time to the test of comparison. This article chooses to focus on some of his most significant work to understand the logic of an intellectual approach that, beyond attempting to solve the age-old enigma, also seeks to question the contemporary realities of social change.