Democracy In America (Complete)
by Alexis de Tocqueville
published
January 1st 2007
(first published 1835)
by Echo Library
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binding
Hardcover, 596 pages
isbn
1406822701
(isbn13: 9781406822700)
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Update: My brother just told me that Kurt Vonnegut says that anyone who hasn't read Democracy in America is a wimp. So I guess that makes me almost not a wimp. Well!
Post from a few weeks ago: I've been wanting to read de Toqueville's, Democracy in America for some time, and I've finally bit the bullet. The translation is beautifully done. De Toqueville's sentiments are eloquent and thought provoking. Wonderful.
How's that for summer reading! Part of me wishes we still talked like...more
Post from a few weeks ago: I've been wanting to read de Toqueville's, Democracy in America for some time, and I've finally bit the bullet. The translation is beautifully done. De Toqueville's sentiments are eloquent and thought provoking. Wonderful.
How's that for summer reading! Part of me wishes we still talked like...more
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Read in September, 2008
I read selections this time around, as I did years ago.
de Tocqueville toured and studied America not long after the French Revolution. He was hoping to glean ideas for his own country. I think what he found couldn't necessarily apply. He says we had no democratic revolution, because we began democratically. This makes sense, as our Revolution was simply an effort to keep that independent flavor, rather than lose it to our parent country.
Among the many things he observes and analyzes,...more
de Tocqueville toured and studied America not long after the French Revolution. He was hoping to glean ideas for his own country. I think what he found couldn't necessarily apply. He says we had no democratic revolution, because we began democratically. This makes sense, as our Revolution was simply an effort to keep that independent flavor, rather than lose it to our parent country.
Among the many things he observes and analyzes,...more
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Read in October, 2007
Written over 150 years ago, Democracy In America is even more important and compelling today than it was then. This past fall, I had the opportunity to teach a Government class for my college. My class studied the second volume of this invaluable classic. It was such a pleasure to study it through a mentor's eyes. It truly came alive for me in a way that it never had before as I prepared to teach it.
Despite his young age, Tocqueville was a master at understanding human nature. Volume II is fil...more
Despite his young age, Tocqueville was a master at understanding human nature. Volume II is fil...more
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Praising this book is a bit like saying Huckleberry Finn was one of the great American novels - it's a profound statement of the obvious. Even so, it must be said: Alexis de Tocqueville's magnum opus is a brilliant sociological analysis of America, with his genius made all the more evident by how applicable his observations about 1830s America are to its twenty-first century counterpart. Everything from the solidity of America's political infrastructure to the disquieting trend toward an...more
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Read in September, 2007
I read this in response to my frustration with what I saw as our inability to bring democracy to other places in the world. Chapters 1-42 and 55 - 57 are the most insightful. Others tend to drag. In 1830s de Tocqueville comes to America to figure our why a democratic revolution in France lead to anarchy and despotism, while a democratic revolution in America lead to freedom. What he finds is still relevant to our trying to bring or give democracy to others.
Two things emerge- first there...more
Two things emerge- first there...more
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Considered a must-read classic about US history and US political culture. In fact, the most over-rated book in all of history. Complete waste of your time. I'd give it zero stars if I could. Alexis spent all his time hanging with his plantation-owner buddies in the South who ran the US gov't at the time, then wrote a book about how great Democracy in the US was. Except for a couple of pages, he ignores all the main issues of US political and economic history: slavery, racism, exploitation,...more
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Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
lucid people who find representative democracy a bit puzzling
I love doing that time travel thing, when you find an author who can bring you to his or her time, and you are like Samantha in Bewitched talking to Franklin while wearing her sensible 60s housewife clothes.
I read my little copy of this book for a few minutes every other day or so, much like (it occurs to me) religiousists read the bible, although I always remember that my choice was written by a youngish white European of no particular esteem who went to check out America, rather than a book...more
I read my little copy of this book for a few minutes every other day or so, much like (it occurs to me) religiousists read the bible, although I always remember that my choice was written by a youngish white European of no particular esteem who went to check out America, rather than a book...more
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Read in February, 2008
it's amazing to read a book from so long ago that is so exquisitely detailed about what's going to happen in the future. tocqueville follows democracy through to its most minute consequences and sets forth warnings. many sections of this book were very dense for me, but it was still enjoyable. mostly i appreciated the warning of the gentle power that will eventually permeate from the government throughout all society into the individuals until they become unmotivated to exercise their moral a...more
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So damned important that I forced myself to read the whole thing. Important for the myths that it created about America as well as the truths it observes. Nothing necessarily radical or progressive here, but still hugely influential. Should be read because every asshole politician likes to cite it. The Penguin Classics version is the one you want because it is unabridged.
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Read in January, 2008
I've had this sitting on my shelf for several years now, occasionally giving it a nervous glance such as one might have given a schoolyard bully during class...At any rate my intimidation was misplaced. This book is an almost unbelievably prescient, sensitive and insightful look at our nation just prior to the industrial revolution. Tocqueville(can someone please help me out with the pronunciation of this man's name? I can't do French names too well, I get "Toke-a-ville"...) covers the...more
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Read in February, 2006
This is not for the faint of heart. But it is amazing that something written so long ago (and by one so young!) could still have the ring of truth to it. I'll admit, our book club voted to read it then mostly complained about its length, so we divided it up and each person was responsible for about 100 pages. Several of us got so interested that we read more than our assignment, but none of us (myself included) actually read the entire book. I'm thinking, now (writing this on Nov 5, 2008) that I...more
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Read in September, 2007
recommends it for:
all americans
this guy is the nostradamus of political science. as everyone says, he's a fucking prophet.
but i'm mostly enjoying how he just tangentially riffs on anything at all at rather random points in his narrative. i'm still early in the book, but here are three precious excerpts from the chapter "Exterior Form of North America":
DeT on the lower orders:
"If in polished countries the lowest of the people are rude and uncivil, it is not merely because they are poor and ignorant...more
but i'm mostly enjoying how he just tangentially riffs on anything at all at rather random points in his narrative. i'm still early in the book, but here are three precious excerpts from the chapter "Exterior Form of North America":
DeT on the lower orders:
"If in polished countries the lowest of the people are rude and uncivil, it is not merely because they are poor and ignorant...more
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I will paraphrase Roger Ebert's famous review of the movie "North":
"I hated this book. Hated hated hated hated hated this book. Hated it. Hated every simpering stupid vacant reader-insulting moment of it. Hated the sensibility that thought anyone would like it. Hated the implied insult to the reader by its belief that anyone would be informed or persuaded by it."
Moreover, I disagreed with everything in this book. I disagreed with every word, sentence, and paragraph, ...more
"I hated this book. Hated hated hated hated hated this book. Hated it. Hated every simpering stupid vacant reader-insulting moment of it. Hated the sensibility that thought anyone would like it. Hated the implied insult to the reader by its belief that anyone would be informed or persuaded by it."
Moreover, I disagreed with everything in this book. I disagreed with every word, sentence, and paragraph, ...more
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My father always described this book as the most quoted least read book. It's true that during election seasons, candidate speeches are peppered with phrases from DIA. But the book's value is that at the birth of our nation, a Frenchman recognized the sanctity and greatness of the democratic dream, but also the hypocrisy and err with which we practice.
This is not a book to sit and read one weekend. It's a book I've been picking up and flipping through for a decade. I've re-read the begin...more
This is not a book to sit and read one weekend. It's a book I've been picking up and flipping through for a decade. I've re-read the begin...more
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Read in January, 2003
recommended to Chris by:
Merecommends it for: American history buffs, fans of democracy
This is a classic and, being that it's by a Frenchman, it offers a unique perspective on our country's formative years. It predicts the Civil War, which is pretty cool, and offers a great deal of insight into the relationships between the young US and England, loyalists and revolutionaries, the North and the South, as well as others I cannot recall off the top of my head. Remarkable.
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Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
any liberty-minded American
Absolutely the best non-fiction work published in the last thousand years. Tocqueville's prose is cogent and powerful, and his insights are incomparable. He reveals the faults of democracy, and warns repeatedly against the tyranny of the majority and against administrative centralization. He foresees equality overpowering and destroying liberty, and recognizes the inability of the individual to protect his god-given rights against the power of the majority and an increasingly overreaching cen...more
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Read in January, 1998
recommended to Mari by:
Frankrecommends it for: everyone
The optimism contained in this book deserves revisiting, especially in light of the election results. The only point that needs updating would be the belief that lawyers hold what's best in America's ideals. Definitely not the most prophetic portion of the book.
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Read in October, 2008
Well, this was a suggestion from my book club. I know that the suggester had good intentions and it was timely with the election and all, but even the SUPER abrigded "for the modern reader" version was impossible to get through. I flipped around and read some interesting parts but trying to read it end to end was like doing (painful) homework. It is also evident that this is really an observation and nothing that should be quoted so much. We talked about how he makes so many contradict...more
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Haunting predictions of what democracy in America could (or would?) become. This is a classic with as much ink spilt on it as any, so like most of these books I don't have an official review, but instead a personal take. I was struck by his description of the aristocracy that can arise as a 'democracy' develops or shifts through various stages, and then I thought of our corporate world. A much larger, more powerful, and invisibly encompassing aristocracy.
We move from single headed aristrocr...more
We move from single headed aristrocr...more
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Read in January, 2008
One of my home teaching families introduced this to me recently (how did I make it through high school and college without ever hearing about this?) and, although the language is dated and the writing verbose, it feels contemporary in so many ways. There are some espeically relevant thoughts on whether Muslim nations can and would ever adopt Western-style democracy... and this was written in the 1830's!
Even though the English-translation version I read was abridged, it still was over 700 pag...more
Even though the English-translation version I read was abridged, it still was over 700 pag...more
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 3.99 (949 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 3.88 (80 ratings) number of reviews: 109
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trivia question
Which mid-19th-century political scholar wrote the two-volume work, Democracy in America, which emphasized the importance of the US judicial system in protecting minority groups against the "tyranny of the majority"?
a. John Stuart Mill
b. Gustave de Beaumont
c. Alexandre de Tocqueville
d. Edouard de Cullenne
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a. John Stuart Mill
b. Gustave de Beaumont
c. Alexandre de Tocqueville
d. Edouard de Cullenne
more »
