Democracy in America

The book's basis was a nine month visit to America by De Tocqueville in 1831, ostensibly to study America's prison system. It was an interesting time to visit America, half-way between the establishment of the constitution and the Civil War. In the course of the visit he met former president John Quincy Adams, then incumbent Andrew Jackson, Senator Daniel Webster and Sam Houston among others. He traveled the length and breath of a country much smaller than what we see on the map now. Before the Mexican-American War and Western expansion and he visited both North and South: New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Nashville, Memphis, New Orleans.

The book is labelled as both American History and Political Science. De Tocqueville show more said the first volume was more about America, the second about democracy. The introduction by Mansfield and Winthrop, the translators and editors of the edition I read, called it both the best book on America and the best on democracy. That despite it being written by a French aristocrat--at least by birth although the introduction describes him as a democrat and liberal by conviction.

De Tocqueville says in his own introduction he did not mean to write a "panegyric" to America. He's critical, at times presciently so, of America and democracy both, and doesn't pull his punches about how slavery and racism might pull apart the country. He doesn't hesitate to call slavery "evil" and his depiction of the plight of Native Americans is both insightful and heartbreaking. Surprisingly so, not what I expected from a Westerner writing in the 19th Century. Yet despite some sharp criticisms--and it being written by an outsider, a foreigner, the book has been embraced and quoted by Americans both from the Left and Right. It's said to be commonly assigned in political science courses and I wish some excerpts had been assigned in mine, instead of the execrable People's History by Zinn. De Tocqueville in the end strikes me as much more credible, still relevant and much more thought-provoking about democracy and its faultlines--especially the "tyranny of the majority."

That's not to say this makes for easy reading. At times I considered giving up on it, slapping a two star rating as too tedious to read. Parts are a slog. I suggest anyone tackling this buy a paperback copy they don't feel hesitant to mark up and highlight and that they take it in short doses. This isn't one of those light, entertaining books. This isn't dessert or junk food. It's a meaty dish; one you chew on and parts can be hard to digest. But the man is brilliant. And it's surprising to me how 200 years later so much resonates in this book and is relevant to contemporary America and its politics. Well worth the effort to anyone interested in democracy or America.

At least the first volume is, which definitely deserves five stars for amazing. That first volume was a popular bestseller in its day, the second volume less so, and I can understand that. As De Tocqueville noted, the first book is more on America, and is grounded in a lot of telling observations. Not that it's absent in this second book, but the second volume is a lot more theoretical, and I think a lot of its points are better made in the first part. I also admit I'm not inclined to accept one of his major themes in this second volume, that religion is essential to democracy. And he seems very much off the mark in his contention that American democracy doesn't produce great literature or advances in the sciences. Admittedly, in 1835 when this second volume was published, about the only well-known American writers of fiction were James Fenimore Cooper and Washington Irving. I can't say I much agree with his criticisms of individualism either. That's not to say reading both parts wasn't worthwhile, but less essential I feel than the amazing first volume. show less

There are so many ways to consider this book, I almost don't know where to start. First, one can think of it as a rich portrait of the United States in the 1830s, with a focus on political life but with social, cultural, and economic life examined as well. One can also appreciate this book as a view of the US from the perspective of a foreigner. Tocqueville flatters Americans quite often in this book, but he also makes numerous comparisons to European nations and points out what he sees as the fundamental differences in systems of government. One can also judge how well this work has stood the test of time and to what extent it still describes America today. I would argue that while many would like to say the country Tocqueville depicts show more is still in existence, he would also find the US much changed. The observances made about wealth, shared power with the people, and vast ambitions are starting to show their age - to the extent that Tocqueville might recognize different forces at work than those he focused on in this work. show less

This is a must have/must read for anyone who is interested in American history. Tocqueville gives a great explanation of America and its government. It is sometimes difficult to read because it was written by a Frenchman many, many years ago but that can be overlooked. Of note, many of Tocqueville's predictions about the state of world affairs turned out to be accurate. Overall, it's a must read for anyone.

need I say Tocquville is a real genius comparable to Karl Marx and E H Carr? Quite good at drawing a grand design and making delicate distinctions. He can be funnier than Carr sometimes.

In a course I took the professor took about this book and it sounded very interesting. But when I finally read the book, it was hard to follow and I realized I liked the professor's explanation of the book better.

Lack of extremes (education/ignorance, wealth/poverty) in Europe

First listened on Hoopla (LPL) 3-7/17 Narrator John Pruden published by Tantor Audio 34 hr 30 min
LT Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville, translated by Mansfield and Winthrop, University of Chicago Press, year of publication, dates I read/studied book (8/4/17-4/18/18)
Recommended by [if anybody]
First listened on Hoopla (LPL) 3-7/17 Narrator John Pruden published by Tantor Audio 34 hr 30 min

Theme: see title
Type: historical/philosophical/political
Value: 1-
Age: col
Interest: 1-
Objectionable:
Synopsis/Noteworthy:

7 There is an historical development of democracy; it needs understood and directed
12, 643 His purpose in undertaking this study
202 He is able to see perspectives in applying truths

CBC/KH
30-32 Motivation to settle America: gold show more and freedom to worship-Puritans
38 Morality Connecticut laws included “Blasphemy, sorcery, adultery, and rape ae punished death; insult done by a son to his parents is struck with the same penalty. … Simple keeping company among unmarried people is severely repressed. They allow the judge to inflict on the guilty one of three penalties: fine, the whip, or marriage; and, if one must believe the registers of the old tribunals of New Haven…, a judgment bearing a fine and reprimand against a young woman accused of having pronounced some indiscreet words and having allowed herself to be given a kiss. The Code of 1650 abounds with preventive measures. Laziness and drunkenness are severely punished. Innkeepers cannot furnish more than a certain quantity of wine… So it is that one finds in the same code a law that prohibits the use of tobacco… …to prevent the worldly luxury of long hair.
** MORE TYPING NEEDED 41-2 SCHOOLS But it is by the prescriptions relative to public education that, from the beginning [principle], one sees revealed in the full light of day the original character of American civilization. …
42 LIBERTY GRASPED BY PEOPLE IN WAY MISSED BY EUROPE (DEFINED BY COMMONER): “There is a liberty of corrupt nature, which is affected both by men and beasts, to do what they list; and this liberty is inconsistent with authority, impatient of all restraint; by this liberty, [we all are inferior]; ‘tis the grand enemy of truth and peace, and all the ordinances of God are bent against it. But there is a civil, a moral, a federal liberty, which is the proper end and object of authority it is liberty for that only which is just and good; for this liberty you are to stand with the hazard of your very lives.”
42 CREATIVITY In that society so humble in appearance, the boldest theories of the human mind, with which undoubtedly no statesman then had designed to be occupied, were brought into practice; left to the originality of its nature, the imagination of man improvised there an unprecedented legislation.
62-3 TOWNSHIP GOV
117 UNDERLYING PRINCIPLE THE SAME IN REALITY EVEN THOUGH GOV FORM DIFFERS (GOOD ILLU OF UBIQUITOUS TRUTH, also 196)
188 EDUCATION LIMITED BY TIME [AND DESIRE] AVAILABLE FOR IT
189-91/188-top BEST MEN ELECTED ONLY IN TIMES OF CRISIS
198 REVIEW OF LIT, II TIM 3:14
225 NATURAL PASSION VERSUS ENLIGHTED PASSION AS A GUIDE TO PATRIOTISM There exists a love of native country that has as its source principally in the unreflective, disinterested, and indefinable sentiment that binds a man to the place where the man was born… There is another more rational than that one; less generous, less ardent perhaps, but more fruitful and mores lasting; this one is born of enlightenment; it develops with the aid of laws, it grows with the exercise of rights…
243-4ff GROUP THINK IN A DEMOCRACY Thought is an invisible and almost intangible power that makes sport of all tyrannies. In our day the most absolute sovereigns of Europe cannot prevent certain thoughts hostile to their authority from mutely circulating in their states and even in the hearts of their courts. It is not the same in America: as long as the majority is doubtful, one speaks; but when it has irrevocably pronounced, everyone becomes silent and friends and enemies alike then seem to hitch themselves together to its wagon…
** MORE TYPING NEEDED 262 JURIES The jury, and above all the civil jury, serves to give to the minds of all citizens a part of the habits of mind of the judge; and these habits are precisely those that best prepare the people to be free.
255-6 EXTREME CONSERVATISM
256 LAWYERS ARE COUNTERWEIGHT TO DEMOCRACY
275 RCC
278-9 WOMEN/MORES Therefore one cannot say that in the US religion exerts an influence on the laws or on the details of political opinions, but it directs mores, and it is in regulating the family that it works to regulate the state. I do not doubt for an instant that the great severity of mores that one remarks in the US has its primary source in beliefs. Religion there is often powerless to restrain man in the midst of the innumerable temptations that fortune presents to him. It cannot moderate the ardor in him for enriching himself, which everything comes to excite, but it reigns as a sovereign over the soul of women, and it is woman who makes mores. Of the world’s countries, America is surely the one where the bond of marriage is most respected and where they have conceived the highest and most just idea of conjugal happiness…
In the US religion not only regulates mores, but extends its empire over intelligence.
Among the Anglo-Americans, some confess Christian dogma because they believe them, others because they afraid of not looking like they believe them.
281 RELIGION DRIVES
328-9ff/360 RACE RELATIONS
332 SLAVERY On the left bank of the Ohio [River, moving west] work is blended With the idea of slavery; on the right bank, with that of well-being and progress; there it is degraded, here they honor it. On the left bank of the river [going west], one cannot find workers belonging to the white race, [for] they would fear resembling slaves; one must rely on the care of Negroes; on the right bank one would seek in vain for an idle man: the white extends his activity and his intelligence to all his works.
335 INHERITANCE IN SOUTH When equality of [inherited] shares reigned in the South, each family was represented by a rich man who felt no more need than taste for work; around him the members of his family whom law had excluded from the common inheritance lived in the same manner. Like so many parasitic plants; one then saw in all the families of the South what one still sees in our day in the noble families of certain countries of Europe, where the younger ones, without having the same wealth as the eldest, remain as idle as he…
358 CULTURE
359 SLAVERY AFFECTS CHARACTER The men who inhabit the immense territory of the US have almost all come from a common stock; but in the long term, climate and above all slavery have introduced marked difference between the character of the English in the South of the US and … the North…
482-3 SELFISHNESS
492 ASSOCIATIONS
501 HOW SELF-INTEREST MORPHS INTO GOOD
504-5 THIS LIFE VERSUS NEXT
508-9 MATERIALISM
517 SUNDAY
519-20 MATERIALISM, RELIGION IMPORTANT
522 FUTURE
525 WORK IS HONORABLE
542 ETIQUETTE
560 RESPECT FOR DADS’ AUTHORITY
568, 572 DEMOCRACIES MORE MORAL
570 VIOLENT DISPOSITIONS
573-6 EQUALITY OF MEN AND WOMEN
578-81 MANNERS
597 HONOR DEFINED WITH DIFFICULTY IN DEMOCRACIES
604 MEDIOCRITY VERSUS PRIDE
610-17 LEADERSHIP OF INDEPENDENT THINKER/REVOLUTIONS RARE
643 BUSYNESS
643-4 EQUALITY DEBASES
662-3 ENSLAVEMENT OF DEMOCRACY
673-4 CONCLUSION
674-5 GOD
675 NEW GENERATION
676 FINAL WORDS

Nate 386-commerce
David Berger 487
Mike Heaphy 653, 656 show less