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Title: Democracy in America by Alexis De Tocqueville, Henry Reeve, Francis Bowen, Patrick Renshaw, Alexis De Tocqueville ISBN: 1-85326-480-6 Publisher: Wordsworth Editions Ltd Pub. Date: June, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.91 (22 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Every literate American should read this
Comment: The specific edition I am reviewing is the Heffner addition which is a 300 page abridgement. I also own an unabridged edition but I have only read Heffner cover to cover. What is amazing about de Toqueville is how uncanny many of his observations are over a century and a half later. He accurately predicted in 1844 that the world's two great powers would be the United States and Russia. He aptly pointed out that Americans are a people who join associations and he is so right 156 years later. Although there are both religious extremists on both ends, ie fundamentalists and atheists, he was dead on that, as a whole, we are a religious society but that our religious views are moderate. De Toqueville shows how American characteristics evolved from democracy as opposed to the highly class structered societies of Europe. From de Tocqueville, it could have been predicted that pop culture, such as rock music etc, would develop in America because the lack of an aristocracy causes a less cultured taste in the arts. In a thousand and one different ways, I found myself marveling at how dead on de Toqueville was. Most controversially, those who argue that we have lost our liberties to a welfare state might well find support in de Toqueville. Here, 100 years before the New Deal, he forsaw that a strong central government would take away our liberties but in a manner much more benign than in a totalitarian government. There are certain liberties that Americans would willingly sacrifice for the common good. Critics of 20th century liberalism in the US might well point to this as an uncanny observation. By reading "Democracy in America," the reader understands what makes Americans tick. De Toquville was an astute observer of who we are as a people and should be read by all educated Americans.
I want to note that there are several editions of this great work and in deciding which to buy, be aware that each has a different translator. I feel Heffner's translation is slightly stilted but, he did such a wonderful job in editing this abridgement that it, nontheless, deserves 5 stars.
Rating: 5
Summary: America defined, and over 165 years ago
Comment: So many aspects of the deepest and most shallow in America are laid bare by a Frenchman who came to The States in 1835 to find for himself whether individuality, freedom and liberty could survive the dangers of equality and democracy. "[The nation] depends on [its people to determine] whether the principle of equality is to lead them to servitude or knowledge, to freedom or barbarism..." writes de Tocqueville. Perhaps, contrary to modern thought, only an outsider can so accurately assess a people. But de Tocqueville is eminently balanced, overall in favor (in my opinion) of what he saw, and thus dismissed in France upon his return.
He notes an American addiction to the practical rather than theoretical, a pragmatic concern, not for the lofty and perfect, but the quick and useful, with relentless ambition, feverish activity and unending quests for devices and shortcuts. Resulting from a requirement for survival on the frontier, these observations are the good, bad and ugly of our modern selves; Resourceful technocrats expanding comfort, health, safety or wealth by anyone with ingenuity and persistence; Our exchange of youth for old age in the workplace, improving our standard of living at the expense of our quality of life; America's shallow nature of thought, sealed up in sound-bites.
De Tocqueville finds in the sacred name of majority, a tyranny over the mind of Americans as oppressive and formidable as any other tyranny - arguably more so by virtue of its acceptance. Where monarchs failed to control thought, democracy succeeds. Opinion polls our politicians subscribe to have a power of conformity. "I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America," he writes. "It is as if the natural bond which unites the opinions of man to his tastes, and his actions to his principles is now broken..."
Of literature and art we see why so much pulp crowds the bookshelf and bamboozles fill our galleries; "Style will frequently be fantastic, incorrect, overburdened and loose - almost always vehement and bold. Authors will aim at rapidity of execution more than at perfection of detail... The object of authors will be to astonish rather than to please, to stir the passions more than charm the taste."
A fascinating evolution of perception - of self and state - unfolds as the democratization of education, property ownership and the vote expands. Wiping away the trappings of privilege transforms the serfdom mindset. We see the perception of opinion as both scoffed when originating in individuals other than ourselves, and, conversely, the worship of opinion as a manifestation of majority rule. Americans, once lionizing the intrepid individual, instead took a turn to having most pride in their sameness. Armed with this understanding, today we see each group define itself by its signals - body language, speech cadence and inflection, vocabulary and dress. Today our youth have surfer speech, rap speech, gangster dress, the hooker look. Business embraces managerese, like "due diligence", "proactive", "right sizing", "leveraging assets to meet market demands". Politicians use the word "clearly" so often that what they mean is not clear. Every group has its code words, actions and look. A time consuming process of investigating the revealed character of individuals is exchanged for quicker, simpler signs.
The climax is reached with de Tocqueville's troubling "either or"; "We must understand what is wanted of society and its government. Do you wish to give a certain elevation of the human mind and teach it to regard the things of this world with generous feelings, to inspire men with a scorn of mere temporal advantages, to form and nourish strong convictions and keep alive a spirit of honorable devotedness? Is it your object to refine the habits, embellish the manners and cultivate the arts, to promote the love of poetry, beauty and glory?... If you believe such to be the principle object of society, avoid the government of democracy, for it would not lead you with certainty to the goal.
"But if you hold it expedient to divert the moral and intellectual activity of man to the production of comfort and promotion of general well being; if a clear understanding be more profitable to a man than genius; if your object be not to stimulate the virtues of heroism, but the habits of peace; if you had rather witness vices and crimes and are content to meet with fewer noble deeds, provided offences be diminished in the same proportion; if, instead of living in the midst of a brilliant society you are contented to have prosperity around you... to ensure the greatest enjoyment and to avoid the most misery... then establish democratic institutions."
Rating: 5
Summary: One of the best novels of the 19th century
Comment: This is one of the best novels of the 19th century. Most people do not recognize the significance of this book, however its relevance to modern literature cannot be emphasized more. Ironically, this book has apparently
gained quite a following among political scientists, historians, and pediatric endocrinologists, however this is only because of a misinterpretation. Many believe De Tocqueville to have been what he claims to have been, a gentleman, statesman, diplomat, and liaision for France to the United States. De Tocqueville was none of the above, in fact he was a petty criminal from Marseille who was arrested in 1832 for stealing horseshoes from a prominent businessman's steed. While in jail he was mixed up with political prisoners from a recent revolt and sent to Martinique to serve a sentance of 5 years hard labor. Unfortunately, De Tocqueville had a hot temper and allegedly killed an Arawak Indian in a fight, and being that this was the last known Arawak Indian on the island was sentanced to life in prison. It was here that he met a young Victor Hugo, a criminal justice student studying colonial jail system and theory, who De Tocqueville befriended. Hugo taught him to write, which Alexis did to pass the time and to allay his growing madness. Upon his death, guards found thousands of pages of text stuffed under his soiled mattress, some of which we now know to be Democracy In America. It was part of a larger epic about a French diplomat named Arnaud Venilas who wrote political treatises and sold them to British merchants to feed his opium addiction.
I wholeheartedly disagree with the modern interpretation of this work and hope that eventually this mini story will be put back into the Venilas context as De Tocqueville had originally intended.
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