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Democracy in America

Alexis de Tocqueville,

Olivier Zunz (Editor),

Arthur Goldhammer (Goodreads Author) (Translator)

4.03 · Rating details · 22,925 ratings · 856 reviews

Democracy in America (1835–1840) is arguably the most perceptive and influential book ever written about American politics and society. This Library of America volume presents Alexis de Tocqueville's masterpiece in an entirely new translation, the first to capture fully the precision and grace of his style while providing a rigorous and faithful rendering of his profound i Democracy in America (1835–1840) is arguably the most perceptive and influential book ever written about American politics and society. This Library of America volume presents Alexis de Tocqueville's masterpiece in an entirely new translation, the first to capture fully the precision and grace of his style while providing a rigorous and faithful rendering of his profound ideas and observations.

A young aristocratic lawyer, Tocqueville came to the United States in 1831 with his friend and fellow magistrate Gustave de Beaumont to study American penitentiary systems. During their nine-month visit they conducted interviews with more than 200 people on American politics, law, and social practices. After returning to France, Tocqueville read hundreds of books and documents while reflecting on what his trip had revealed about the "great democratic revolution" that was transforming the Western world.

In Democracy in America he vividly describes the unprecedented "equality of conditions" found in the United States and explores its implications for European society in the emerging modern era. His book provides enduring insight into the political consequences of widespread property ownership, the potential dangers to liberty inherent in majority rule, the importance of civil institutions in an individualistic culture dominated by the pursuit of material self-interest, the influence of the press and the judiciary in American politics, and the vital role of religion in American life, while prophetically examining the widening differences between the northern and southern states.

In "the ideal toward which democratic peoples tend," Tocqueville writes, men "will be perfectly free, because they will all be entirely equal, and they will all be perfectly equal because they will be entirely free." But, he warns, their passion for liberty and their passion for equality are unequal: "They want equality in liberty, and if they cannot have it, they want it still in slavery."

Arthur Goldhammer has translated from the French more than 80 works in history, literature, art history, classical studies, philosophy, psychology, and social science.

Olivier Zunz, volume editor, is Commonwealth Professor of History at the University of Virginia. He is the author of Why the American Century?, Making America Corporate, 1870–1920, and The Changing Face of Inequality, and co-editor of The Tocqueville Reader: A Life in Letters and Politics. ...more

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Published 2004 by Library of America (first published 1835)

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Jul 15, 2013 Roy Lotz rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: misanthropology, art-of-compromise, americana, supermassive, highly-recommended-favorites

I struggle to penetrate God’s point of view, from which vantage point I try to observe and judge human affairs.

A few months ago, bored at work and with no other obligations to tie me to New York, I decided that I would look into employment in Europe; and now, several months and an irksome visa process later, I am on the verge of setting off to Madrid. Unsurprisingly, I’m very excited to go; but of course leaving one’s home is always bittersweet. This is partly why I picked up Tocqueville’s D ...more

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Jun 14, 2013 Russell Bittner rated it it was amazing

I don’t mind admitting that Alexis de Toqueville’s Democracy in America is quite possible the most demanding piece of exposition I’ve read since Hegel’s Phenomenology of Mind. I suspect it’s one of those books — analogous, if you will, to Cervantes’ Don Quixote, Melville’s Moby Dick, Proust’s In Search of Lost Time or Musil’s Man Without Qualities — that avid readers want to have read, but never have.

I finally did.

If you can find the time (and the quiet) to read fifty pages of th ...more

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Jun 15, 2011 Jan-Maat added it · review of another edition

Shelves: usa, 19th-century, politics-and-polemic

I had thought to come back to this after reading a general history of the early history of the US republic, but instead a sudden batch of newspaper articles wondering about the end of Democracy brought me back to it.

Reading this book I felt that the unfinished The Ancien Regime and the French Revolution was Tocqueville's masterpiece and in so far as Democracy in America has renown, I feel it is because there are a lot of Americans, and naturally it is nice when a foreigner takes your country an ...more

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Sep 25, 2020 Manuel Antão rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020

If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.

Wisdom of the American People: "Democracy in America" by Alexis de Tocqueville, Gerald Bevan (Trans.)

Like many people, I think that Donald Trump might not give up power if he loses the presidential election. And if he tries a coup, I'm afraid that he could succeed. I don’t think that’s the likely outcome, but it’s not something I’d discount. Deeply I want to believe in the robustness of American democracy, whose persistence (with its o ...more

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Sep 19, 2019 Glenn Russell added it · review of another edition

Alexis de Tocqueville captures the spirit of American democracy back when he wrote his classic in 1835. But what of the spirit of democracy in current day America where every citizen has the God given right to be a spectator or participate in exciting entertainment? The following fiction by author Lawrence Millman hits the bull's-eye.

THE ORIGIN OF DEMOCRACY
A few years ago the Murmansk Opera came to town. And my friend Clint decided to take his wife Erma to a production of The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia at the local grange. Now Clint had never been near an opera before. Closet he had come was the tri-annual demolition derby sponsored by the Loyal Order of moose. So you can imagine his confusion when, by the middle of the second act, not a single junker had gone to meet its Maker. He had hoped at least to see a skirmish of Ladas and Moskvitches, with perhaps something from the Eastern Block, like a Skoda, thrown in. "When they gonna bring on the cars? he asked Erma. Sh-h-h, said the man sitting behind him. Nor did any cars show up the the end of the third act. Clint felt cheated. "If the next act don't have a bang-up," he said, "I'm gettin' our money back. Sh-h-h, hissed the man behind him. At which point Clint turned around: "It's a goddamn free country. I got every right to speak my mind. It's guaranteed by the, um, constipation." "Constitution," whispered Erma. "Like I said," Clint said. And when the next act brought only an apotheosis or two, he stormed out of the grange. Minutes later he reappeared driving his Dodge-Studebacker pickup mix. He drove it right onto the stage, sideswiping a baritone and dispersing the Chorus of the Russian People. "Ain't no Communist gonna destroy the sacred privilege of a car." Clint said. The audience gave him a standing ovation. And soon a whole armada of Fords, Chevys, Dodge Darts, and Buicks was crowding onto the stage, honking and cruising and bashing each other. The man who'd been sitting behind Clint kept yelling, "Quiet! Quiet! I want to hear the opera." But it was too late. The majority ruled.

*The Origin of Democracy by Lawrence Millman appeared in Unscheduled Departures - The Asylum Anthology of Short Fiction edited by Greg Boyd ...more

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Dec 26, 2012 Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, 19th-century, non-fiction, political, historical

‭De la democratie en Amerique = On Democracy in America = Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville
De La Démocratie en Amérique published in two volumes, the first in 1835 and the second in 1840) is a classic French text by Alexis de Tocqueville. Its title translates as On Democracy in America, but English translations are usually simply entitled Democracy in America. In the book, Tocqueville examines the democratic revolution that he believed had been occurring over the previous several hundr ‭De la democratie en Amerique = On Democracy in America = Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville
De La Démocratie en Amérique published in two volumes, the first in 1835 and the second in 1840) is a classic French text by Alexis de Tocqueville. Its title translates as On Democracy in America, but English translations are usually simply entitled Democracy in America. In the book, Tocqueville examines the democratic revolution that he believed had been occurring over the previous several hundred years.
عنوانها: دموکراسی در دنیای جدید؛ دموکراسی در امریکا؛ تحلیل دموکراسی در امریکا؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: یازدهم ماه مارس سال 1971 میلادی
عنوان: تحلیل دموکراسی در دنیای جدید؛ نویسنده: شارل هانری موریس کارل دو توکویل؛ یا: الکسی دو توکویل؛ با مقدمه هارولد نسکی؛ مترجم: رحمت الله مقدم (رحمت الله مقدم مراغه ای)؛ تهران، بنگاه ترجمه و نشر کتاب، 1346؛ در 815 ص؛ چاپ دیگر: تهران، نشر همراه، 1380، در 743 ص؛ شابک: 9641319505؛ موضوع: دموکراسی در امریکا قرن 19 م
عنوان: تحلیل دموکراسی در امریکا؛ نویسنده: شارل هانری موریس کارل دو توکویل؛ یا: الکسی دو توکویل؛ با مقدمه هارولد نسکی؛ مترجم: رحمت الله مقدم (رحمت الله مقدم مراغه ای)؛ تهران، زوار، فرانکلین، 1347؛ در 815 ص؛ چاپ دیگر: تهران، علمی فرهنگی، 1383، در هشتاد و یک و 574 ص؛ چاپ سوم: 1393، شابک: 9789644455285؛ موضوع: دموکراسی در امریکا قرن 19 م
جناب بزرگ نادرزاد نیز در دو جلد این کتاب را برای نشر فرهنگ جاوید ترجمه کرده است که جلد دوم آن در سال 1394 هجری خورشیدی بوده است
در سال 1831 میلادی، الکسی دو توکویل و گوستاو دو بیومون از سوی دولت فرانسه اعزام شدند، تا نظام زندان آمریکا را مورد مطالعه قرار دهند. توکویل در نامه‌ های متأخرش می‌گوید که او و بیومون از کسب و کار رسمیشان به عنوان زمینه‌ ای استفاده کردند تا در عوض جامعهٔ آمریکا را مورد مطالعه قرار دهند. آنان در ماه می همانسال به نیویورک رسیدند، و نه ماه در ایالات متحده سفر کردند، زندان‌ها را مورد مطالعه قرار دادند و در خصوص جامعهٔ آمریکا از جمله ویژگی‌های مذهبی، سیاسی و اقتصادی آن اطلاعات گردآوری کردند. این دو به طور جزئی از کانادا نیز دیدن کردند. ا. شربیانی ...more

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Dec 15, 2019 Dan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville

de Tocqueville, a young French diplomat, wrote this remarkable essay in two books based on his travels to the United States in the 1830s. He was a student of the consequences of the French revolution and had a very disdainful view of power for a diplomat — in particular the elite’s ability to eventually exploit the loopholes and take power back from the people. It quickly becomes obvious from this treatise that de Tocqueville had enormous admiration f ...more

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Jun 17, 2019 HBalikov rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

It amazed me that my country, the USA, was looked on as a democracy worth emulating within its first half century of existence. Though some see Democracy in America as a recounting of travels, and others see it a deconstruction of a foreign country, I think I am with a fair number of others who consider Tocqueville as trying to find what France might adapt for its own institutions. That, of course, started with our penal system because that is what “paid the freight” for Tocqueville and his comp ...more

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May 15, 2019 Hai Quan rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Update 1/10/2921
IS THIS A ZOO OR A CIRCUS?
You tell men
With the storming of Trump's cultists at the Legislative Building resulting in 5 deaths and dozen injured, I found my review ( written long before this tragi-comic incident) of this book, expressing my antipathy to what is known as DEMOCRACY in this land JUSTIFIED.

Looking at all the dark dealing before Trump "winning " the presidential election, his "Making America great again" hullabaloo, his thousands of lying statements that was recorded ...more

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Jan 08, 2010 Mike (the Paladin) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I'm going with 4 stars here, it isn't always the easiest book to read, but worth it. There is a lot of wisdom in this book, a lot of insight. While history hasn't borne out all his predictions, there have been enough. Sadly also, it looks as though more of the things he said may still prove to be true.

In today's atmosphere, the thoughts here compared to the reality we live in and that "may" be coming to pass....well, it's worth some thought. When America broke away from the "branch" so to speak I'm going with 4 stars here, it isn't always the easiest book to read, but worth it. There is a lot of wisdom in this book, a lot of insight. While history hasn't borne out all his predictions, there have been enough. Sadly also, it looks as though more of the things he said may still prove to be true.

In today's atmosphere, the thoughts here compared to the reality we live in and that "may" be coming to pass....well, it's worth some thought. When America broke away from the "branch" so to speak it was a new thing in the world. No colony had ever done what was done here and it was an idealistic experiment even a dream that was watched by the world. Europe was...somewhat worried and England in particular was very unhappy about the implications. Had the War of 1812 gone differently on this side of the Atlantic we all still might be drinking tea more than coffee as it could have changed everything. But when you say "the War of 1812" in Europe their minds go to battles and events other than here in North America. They think of the Napoleonic war.

But back to the subject. The American Revolution raised questions worldwide and things began to percolate. In France things boiled over not long after they did here. It's notable that many in the academic community are far more enamored with the French Revolution than with the American. You see it was "supposed to be" a "rational Revolution" it was a Godless revolution with all the clergy and God Himself rejected by the leaders and much of the movement (the clergy was seen as close to the royals you see). Unfortunately the French Revolution spun out of control into a rein of terror and then into a military dictatorship.

In the wake of all this a young man (Alexis de Tocqueville) spent 9 months touring the "new" United States and when he returned to France he wrote this book commenting on the social and governmental "situation" and implications.

He was torn between hopeful and...well, not so hopeful.

So I recommend the book. It's interesting, thought provoking and somewhat sobering. I leave you with one quote from said book:

“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Think about it. ...more

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Jul 30, 2013 E. G. rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: translated, 5-star, france-algeria, non-fiction, essays, philosophy-psychology-sociology, own

Chronology
Introduction & Notes
Further Reading
Translator's Note

--Democracy in America
Notes

Two Essays on America:
--Two Weeks in the Wilderness
--Excursion to Lake Oneida ...more

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Aug 01, 2008 Karey rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: bettering-myself

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 pilgrims. ...more

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Oct 29, 2020 Hadrian rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, history, politics-political-science, usa, french

de Tocqueville is one of those authors that is often quoted, sometimes excerpted, but not always read in full. It's been years since I've last read anything by him. In returning to him, I am faced with the fact that he often repeats himself, and his writing could have been greatly improved with a reliable editor.

He writes about the United States not in specific details, but in broad assertions. His opinions and observations are cited by liberals who favor his opinions on the "equality of condit de Tocqueville is one of those authors that is often quoted, sometimes excerpted, but not always read in full. It's been years since I've last read anything by him. In returning to him, I am faced with the fact that he often repeats himself, and his writing could have been greatly improved with a reliable editor.

He writes about the United States not in specific details, but in broad assertions. His opinions and observations are cited by liberals who favor his opinions on the "equality of conditions", conservatives who favor his slow-walking of reform as well as his admiration of the system as a union of states without an overweening federal government. Tocqueville could even be cited by Marxists - the growth of industrialization, for example, leads him to remark that "all the industrial crises threaten more and more to become political crises."

A good deal of his writing and predictions have the stamp of the 1830s on them. He predicts that the federal government would not become more powerful - not really. He casts aspersions on the state of American literature - give it a few more years and you have Melville, Poe, and Dickinson. He was a comte who was snakebit by the French Revolution - he reports to French readers on democracy that continues to exist without the violent convulsions of the French Revolution that tore apart his fellow aristocrats. Well, no, there was a civil war three decades later.

Even with all these caveats, there are many observations that still show de Tocqueville's perception. Take, for example, the importance of inheritance law, the importance of religious belief, his notes on the power of the judiciary, of elected representatives growing more obsessed with reelection instead of the interests of their constituents, of Americans' tendency to join groups and form "voluntary associations" -- and the terror of a "soft despotism", where the form of democracy is retained and the electorate has no power at all. Or, how the state of slavery was such de Tocqueville, a dyed-in-the-wool colonialist, saw only cruelty and waste coming out of it.

Finally, it is a reminder that for large parts of the 19th and even the 20th century, the United States was seen as a model or as an ideal for later governmental structure or policy reforms. In October 2020, this is not the case. If there is any hope for recovery, and that recovery is a long and difficult process, that might be more evident after November 3rd. ...more

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Feb 02, 2019 Taku Nakaminato marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Long time ago I studied this book for a semester-long seminer class. I liked it, but I couldn't keep carrying the big book with me after the class. I wish there had been eBooks at that time. ...more

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Jul 05, 2007 David rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: mind-numbingly-boring

The evidence is mounting. I am a philistine.

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Apr 05, 2015 Douglas Wilson rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: culture-studies

Justly a classic. I learned a great deal, including about myself.

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Jul 02, 2019 Steve rated it liked it · review of another edition

Can you be a proud, card-carrying observer of American society without first having read Democracy in America? Given this is my second time through de Tocqueville's work, do you think I can get my card laminated?

I bored with this read. De Tocqueville makes some interesting observations about life in early 19th century America. He drones on and on, later in this work, with comparisons between the democracy he has observed in America and with the aristocracies of Europe. I'm glad I won't be tested ...more

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Jul 07, 2019 Chris rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, history, nonfiction, current-affairs-or-politics

How does one review a 900+ page work (4 vols) that combines observations, history & essays published between 1835 and 1838. He spent nine months in the U.S in 1831 & 1832. He wrote in paradoxes, had some incredible insights and some out and out misses about Americans, American life and what the future holds. I had to keep reminding myself of the time period, and the incredibly small slice of life he was observing in his travels, along with his own background and experience in Europe, specificall ...more

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Jul 19, 2018 Sharon Barrow Wilfong rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

It's taken a year and a half but I have finally finished the unabridged version of Tocqueville's great classic.

Ironically there is far too much to cover to try to give an adequate review.

"In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont were sent by the French government to study the American prison system. In his later letters Tocqueville indicates that he and Beaumont used their official business as a pretext to study American society instead.[3] They arrived in New York City in May of t It's taken a year and a half but I have finally finished the unabridged version of Tocqueville's great classic.

Ironically there is far too much to cover to try to give an adequate review.

"In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont were sent by the French government to study the American prison system. In his later letters Tocqueville indicates that he and Beaumont used their official business as a pretext to study American society instead.[3] They arrived in New York City in May of that year and spent nine months traveling the United States, studying the prisons, and collecting information on American society, including its religious, political, and economic character. " from wikepedia

I do not remember anything about the prison system of America but there is much comparing and contrasting between the Democratic government of America and the aristocracy in Europe and especially in France. Tocqueville also compares the mentality of Americans vs. French.

He sees much to commend in American, he also believes there are advantages to living under a theocracy as well. He details each advantage and disadvantage.

And Tocqueville leaves no stone unturned. He breaks down government on a national, state, county and city level. He compares the various religions (at that time Christian denominations) and how the Church affects how people think, Protestant, such as Episcopalian and it's belief in the state church; Puritanism and it's belief in the right of individual freedom of religious practice and also the Catholic church, which is founded on a theocracy and goes hand in hand with Royalty. (Of course this is not so today, he is describing the state of contemporary France).

Other studies were on American's view of money, their right to earn and keep it and also their attitude towards the poor and helpless. Their right to own their own land, compared to a serf-like attitude that seems to still be prevalent in Europe where everyone is considered, if not servantss to a king anymore, still wards of the state, where each person must serve the state, handing over most of their earnings and possessions to the state in order to be taken care of by the state. Europeans would argue that this is for the common good of all, but they cannot show how the system is different from serving Royalty. In practice it is the same.

I found many of observances insightful, but I'm not sure how true they are. He makes a lot of unsubstantiated and sweeping generalizations by which he then forms his conclusions. I daresay much of it is true and also his conclusions, and some of his observations may have been wrong and also his conclusions (even if his observations were right).

This is a book filled with heavy thought. As I said, it took me over a year to read it. It is worth everyone's while to read it because too many Americans today are ignorant as to our history. This is an invaluable record of American life on every level as seen from an outsider's point of view. ...more

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Feb 05, 2017 Rebecca Renner rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

One of the most pivotal books in my college education. It got me to start rethinking the concept of prisons and mass incarceration in America.

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Feb 04, 2014 Lynn Beyrouthy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: politics

In the 1830s, the period during which this book was written, Europe was still straining under the social structures of The Old Regime (the Helvetian Confederation excluded) while a new democratic state had emerged, ever since its Declaration of Independence on July 4 1776, the United States of America, led by George Washington who seemed to be the modern American version of Solon or Pericles.

Alexis de Tocqueville, a French aristocrat and politician, fascinated by the democracy so easily establis ...more

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Aug 04, 2013 booklady rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013, biography, autobiography, classic, education, non-fiction, worth-reading-over-and-over, philosophy, travel

My husband and I have listened to the audio version of Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America for the past few months. We have paused many times to discuss interesting passages and have thoroughly enjoyed this courteous visitor’s (de Tocqueville was French) perspective on the early years of our nation. The first Volume was written in 1835 and the second in 1840.

To fully appreciate this monumental socio-economic classic of colonial and antebellum political life, one would need to devote man ...more

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Mar 17, 2012 Richard marked it as to-read

Shelves: classic, social-political, history, nonfiction, philosophy

Have to eventually read this, of course.

Just a note, for now. I was reading about some essay on The Economist, and one of the comments quoted from de Tocqueville. The comment, below, reminded me of one of the reasons I’m somewhat pessimistic about America’s future as Aquinas’ “city on a hill”.

The foundation of New England was a novel spectacle, and all the circumstances attending it were singular and original. […]
The settlers who established themselves on the shores of New England all belonged

The foundation of New England was a novel spectacle, and all the circumstances attending it were singular and original. […]
The settlers who established themselves on the shores of New England all belonged to the more independent classes of their native country. Their union on the soil of America at once presented the singular phenomenon of a society containing neither lords nor common people, neither rich nor poor. These men possessed, in proportion to their number, a greater mass of intelligence than is to be found in any European nation of our own time. All, without a single exception, had received a good education, and many of them were known in Europe for their talents and their acquirements. The other colonies had been founded by adventurers without family; the emigrants of New England brought with them the best elements of order and morality, they landed in the desert accompanied by their wives and children. But what most especially distinguished them was the aim of their undertaking. They had not been obliged by necessity to leave their country, the social position they abandoned was one to be regretted, and their means of subsistence were certain. Nor did they cross the Atlantic to improve their situation, or to increase their wealth; the call which summoned them from the comforts of their homes was purely intellectual; and in facing the inevitable sufferings of exile, their object was the triumph of an idea.
— [Page 31, Democracy In America, Alexis De Tocqueville; via google books]

What de Tocqueville recognized was the incredible exceptionalism of America’s founders, and their immediate lineage.

Beyond that, the United States has had a few other important sources of differentiation.

First, the land was — for their intents and purposes — empty (the annihilation of the native Americans is of utmost importance, but not central to this analysis). A historically unprecedented amount of land and resources was very quickly translated into a wealthy and powerful country, one still united in its self-identity, not riven by zero-sum contests of acquisition.

Second, at the same time the industrial revolution was the cause of an increasing number of those same zero-sum contests of acquisition in Europe, so the peaceful growth of the United States was even more dramatic in comparison.

In the centuries since then, the United States has become “normal”, just like other developed countries. We now fight with each other roughly to the same degree as any other developed country. In the decades since the end of WWII, the United States has spent incredible sums as the hegemon, both wisely and foolishly. Even though it should have been apparent years ago that the country can no longer afford to exercise this role — in fiscal or repetitional terms — the belief in America’s “mission” forces continuing impoverishment.

Samuel Johnson claimed that “patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel”, but what is of equal concern today is that patriotism is beggaring the country. ...more

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Aug 30, 2011 Dan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: social-science, history, philosophy

This is not a review by any means, just a placeholder to indicate that after two months of enthusiasm, two months of stalling, and a final two months of hard reading, I have finally finished Democracy in America. I am no longer a wimp! (nor am I a "twerp", in the words of Vonnegut. Thanks Dion)

In my altered state (the euphoria of having finished such an amazing book), I cannot with sound mind expound upon how awesome this book is. It will take many years of study and careful re-reading to fully ...more

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Mar 14, 2019 Donna rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

No getting away from the fact that this is a loooong book and it's always a challenge when you are reading a book in translation. Tocqueville is a Frenchman who toured America in the 1820s-30s and then wrote the book about the United States for his audience in France. His observations are relevant both in an outsiders view on the constitutional government and as compared to the aristocratic governments of Europe. More importantly are Tocqueville's observations on the American character itself--t ...more

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Jul 10, 2019 grllopez rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: history, non-fiction, twem, political, twem-histories, re-read, american, french

I'm still keeping this at 4 stars because I realize the enormity of it (especially when I consider that Tocqueville wrote this w/ a pen), but, man, am I glad to be done reading this.

REVIEW: https://www.greatbookstudy.com/2019/0... ...more

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Mar 18, 2012 Sarah Myers rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: politics, history

Five reasons you really might want to consider reading Democracy in America:

1. You were assigned it for a political theory class. Yes, in this circumstance, I would definitely recommend reading it. This should not need elaboration.

2. You just love beautiful writing. Congratulations. The introduction alone will be a literary feast worth the price of the book. (Note that this might vary by translation; mine is the Mansfield and Winthrop translation.)

3. You feel unlearned, inferior, left out, and ...more

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Oct 03, 2007 Jerry Raviol rated it really liked it · review of another edition

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 were ma ...more

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Jun 11, 2011 sologdin rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: condemned-to-repeat-it-apparently, law

tourist instructs his hosts that their preferred legal mechanisms may develop into ochlocracy if they don't cool it. ...more

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Jun 03, 2018 Audrey rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, non-fiction, 2018-books

This classic is a must for students of political science and American studies. With its highly academic writing style, it’s like reading the Federalist Papers. I could only read a little at a time. I ended up with the abridged version, which is just as well. The abridger says Toqueville was often repetitive, so I don’t think I missed anything important.

He wrote two volumes some years apart, which are now usually combined into one. Each volume is divided into several sections. Toqueville was a Fr This classic is a must for students of political science and American studies. With its highly academic writing style, it’s like reading the Federalist Papers. I could only read a little at a time. I ended up with the abridged version, which is just as well. The abridger says Toqueville was often repetitive, so I don’t think I missed anything important.

He wrote two volumes some years apart, which are now usually combined into one. Each volume is divided into several sections. Toqueville was a Frenchman who traveled throughout the United States while France was still in upheaval. He wanted to see how democracy worked (though it’s really a representative democracy).

He tries to remain completely disinteresed and nonpartisan but condemns slavery. When he discusses American democracy, he is ignoring the South because he doesn’t consider it a democracy.

It was interesting to see some of my ideas challenged. To me, all people are created equal by Natural Law, and that’s an absolute truth. Toqueville seems to find it a charming notion. He comes across as snooty sometimes; he really believes (it seems) aristocrats are inherently better than other people and deserve to sit around all day thinking up Big Ideas.

Anyway, these are the things I highlighted:

Poverty with misfortune is the best-known guarantee of equality among men.

Slavery … dishonors labor; it introduces idleness into society and therewith ignorance and pride, poverty and luxury.

In America it is religion which leads to enlightenment and the observance of divine laws which leads men to liberty.

Though mental endowments remain unequal as the Creator intended, the means of exercising them are equal.

Each man is the best judge of his own interest and the best able to satisfy his private needs.

In America, the people are enlightened, awake to their own interests, and accustomed to take thought for them.

The citizens will always be better able to achieve social prosperity than the authority of the government.

What good is it to me, after all, if there is an authority always busy to see to the tranquil enjoyment of my pleasures and going ahead to brush all dangers away from my path without giving me even the trouble to think about it, if that authority, which protects me from the smallest thorns on my journey, is also the absolute master of my liberty and of my life?

Look where you will, you will never find true power among men except in the free concurrence of their wills.

Often to a European a public official stands for force; to an American he stands for right. It is therefore fair to say that a man never obeys another man, but justice, or the law.

[An American] thinks of some enterprise, and it does not come into his head to appeal to public authority for its help. … No doubt he is often less successful than the state would have been in his place, but in the long run the sum of all private undertakings far surpasses anything the government might have done.

Men appeal to force when they do not have right on their side.

What does comfort or freedom profit a nation if it is in danger of being conquered? What good are its industries and trade if another rules the seas and lays down the law in all markets?

There is therefore at the bottom of democratic instituions some hidden tendency which often makes men promote the general prosperity, in spite of their vices and their mistakes, whereas in aristocratic institutions there is sometimes a secret bias which, in spite of talents and virtues, leads men to contribute to the afflictions of their fellows.

No man can be great without virtue, nor any nation great without respect for rights.

Democratic government makes the idea of political rights penetrate right down to the least of citizens.

Despotism often presents itself as the defender of the oppressed and founder of order. Peoples are lulled to sleep by the temporary prosperity it engenders, and when they do wake up, they are wretched. But liberty is generally born in stormy weather, growing with difficulty amid civil discords, and only when it is already old does one see the blessings it has brought.

In America the people obey the law not only because it is their work but also because they can change it if by any chance it does injure them; they submit to it primarily as a self-imposed evil, and secondly as a passing one.

An American does not know how to converse, but he argues; if an American should be reduced to occupying himself with his own affairs alone, at that moment half his existence would be snatched from him; he would feel it as a vast void in his life and would become incredibly unhappy.

If ever freedom is lost in America, that will be due to the omnipotence of the majority driving the minorities to desperation and forcing them to appeal to physical force.

It is certainly not the elected magistrate who makes the American democracy prosper, but the fact that the magistrates are elected.

There is only one effective remedy against the evils which equality may cause, and that is political liberty.

A government could take the place of some of the largest association in America, but what political power could ever carry on the vast multitude of lesser undertakings which associations daily enable American citizens to control? The more government takes the place of associations, the more will individuals lose the idea of forming associations and need the government to come to their help. That is a vicious cycle of cause and effect. The morals and intelligence of a democratic people would be in as much danger as its commerce and industry if ever a government wholly usurped the place of private associations.

No matter how a people strives for it, all the conditions of life can never be perfectly equal. Even if, by misfortune, such an absolute dead level were attained, there would still be inequalities of intelligence which, coming directly from God, will ever escape the laws of man.

Americans do not feel degraded because they work, for everyone around them is working. There is nothing humiliating about the idea of receiving a salary, for the president of the United States works for a salary. He is paid for giving orders, as they are for obeying them. In the United States professions are more or less unpleasant, more or less lucrative, but they are never high or low. Every honest profession is honorable.

If anyone asks me what I think the chief cause of the extraordinary prosperity and growing power of this nation, I should answer that it is due to the superiority of their women. ...more

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About Alexis de Tocqueville

Alexis de Tocqueville

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Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville (July 29, 1805 – April 16, 1859) was a French political thinker and historian best known for his Democracy in America (appearing in two volumes: 1835 and 1840) and The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856). In both of these works, he explored the effects of the rising equality of social conditions on the individual and the state in western societies.

Democr Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville (July 29, 1805 – April 16, 1859) was a French political thinker and historian best known for his Democracy in America (appearing in two volumes: 1835 and 1840) and The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856). In both of these works, he explored the effects of the rising equality of social conditions on the individual and the state in western societies.

Democracy in America (1835), his major work, published after his travels in the United States, is today considered an early work of sociology and political science. An eminent representative of the classical liberal political tradition, Tocqueville was an active participant in French politics, first under the July Monarchy (1830–1848) and then during the Second Republic (1849–1851) which succeeded to the February 1848 Revolution. He retired from political life after Louis Napoléon Bonaparte's December 2, 1851 coup, and thereafter began work on The Old Regime and the Revolution, Volume I. After obtaining a law degree, Alexis de Tocqueville was named auditor-magistrate at the court of Versailles. There, he met Gustave de Beaumont, a prosecutor substitute, who collaborated with him on various literary works. Both were sent to the United States to study the penitentiary system. During this trip, they wrote Du système pénitentiaire aux Etats-Unis et de son application (1832). Back in France, Tocqueville became a lawyer. He met the English economist Nassau William Senior in 1833, and they became good friends and corresponded for many years.[1] He published his master-work, De la démocratie en Amérique, in 1835. The success of this work, an early model for the science that would become known as sociology, led him to be named chevalier de la Légion d'honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour) in 1837, and to be elected the next year to the Académie des sciences morales et politiques. In 1841 he was elected to the Académie française.

Tocqueville, who despised the July Monarchy (1830–1848), began his political career in the same period. Thus, he became deputy of the Manche department (Valognes), a position which he maintained until 1851. In parliament, he defended abolitionist views and upheld free trade, while supporting the colonization of Algeria carried on by Louis-Philippe's regime. Tocqueville was also elected general counsellor of the Manche in 1842, and became the president of the department's conseil général between 1849 and 1851.

Apart from Canada, Tocqueville also made an observational tour of England, producing Memoir on Pauperism. In 1841 and 1846, he traveled to Algeria. His first travel inspired his Travail sur l'Algérie, in which he criticized the French model of colonization, based on an assimilationist view, preferring instead the British model of indirect rule, which did not mix different populations together. He went as far as openly advocating racial segregation between the European colonists and the "Arabs" through the implementation of two different legislative systems (a half century before its effective implementation with the 1881 Indigenous code).

After the fall of the July Monarchy during the February 1848 Revolution, Tocqueville was elected a member of the Constituent Assembly of 1848, where he became a member of the Commission charged with the drafting of the new Constitution of the Second Republic (1848–1851). He defended bicameralism (two parliamentary chambers) and the election of the President of the Republic by universal suffrage. As the countryside was thought to be more conservative than the laboring population of Paris, universal suffrage was conceived as a means to block the revolutionary spirit of Paris.

During the Second Republic, Tocqueville sided with the parti de l'Ordre against the "socialists" and workers. A few days after the February insurrection, he believed a violent clash between the workers' population agitating in favor of a "Democratic and Social Republic" and ...more

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The Old Regime and the French Revolution

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“I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.” — 240 likes

“Nothing is more wonderful than the art of being free, but nothing is harder to learn how to use than freedom.” — 212 likes

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