What They Saw in America: Alexis de Tocqueville, Max Weber, G. K. Chesterton, and Sayyid Qutb

by James L. Nolan Jr.

Grounded in the stories of their actual visits, What They Saw in America takes the reader through the journeys of four distinguished, yet very different foreign visitors - Alexis de Tocqueville, Max Weber, G. K. Chesterton and Sayyid Qutb - who traveled to the United States between 1830 and 1950. The comparative insights of these important outside observers (from both European and Middle Eastern countries) encourage sober reflection on a number of features of American culture that have persisted over time - individualism and conformism, the unique relationship between religion and capitalism, indifference toward nature, voluntarism, attitudes toward race, and imperialistic tendencies. Listening to these travelers' views, both the ambivalent and even the more unequivocal, can help Americans better understand themselves, more fully empathize with the values of other cultures, and more deeply comprehend how the United States is perceived from the outside.

Genres: History, Sociology, Memoir, Nonfiction

306 pages, Paperback

Published May 10, 2016

About the author

James L. Nolan Jr.
Washington Gladden 1859 Professor of Sociology, Williams College.

Professor Nolan’s teaching and research interests fall within the general areas of law and society, culture, technology and social change, and historical comparative sociology. His most recent book, Atomic Doctors: Conscience and Complicity at the Dawn of the Nuclear Age, was published with Harvard University Press in 2020. His previous books include What They Saw in America: Alexis de Tocqueville, Max Weber, G.K. Chesterton, and Sayyid Qutb (2016); Legal Accents, Legal Borrowing: The International Problem-Solving Court Movement (2009); Reinventing Justice: The American Drug Court Movement (2001); and The Therapeutic State: Justifying Government at Century’s End (1998). He is the recipient of several grants and awards including National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships and a Fulbright scholarship. He has held visiting fellowships at Oxford University, Loughborough University, and the University of Notre Dame.

Source: Williams College

Reviews

[Clay Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent insight into the America of long ago.

[Mike Fendrich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read. Author describes the thoughts of four men who traveled to and wrote about their experiences in America. De Tocqueville, Weber, Chesterton from Europe and Quebec from Egypt. Nolan then has a concluding chapter as he summarizes their thoughts under various categories, the best being titled "Taking Culture Seriously and the Benefits of Ambivalence ". Some very interesting and perceptive thoughts how Americans are only interested in cultural window dressing and do not take real cultural differences seriously, such as religious faith. We interface with the world in a thoroughly secular fashion which not only has been a disaster in the Middle East but doesn't even fairly represent this nation. This can create resentment as the world sees our efforts as an attempt to make everyone like us and we get mad when our efforts aren't appreciated or desired.

I am grateful to be an American citizen and thankful for the many freedoms and blessings we have been given by our forefathers. But I am also thankful for "transplants" who show us our blind spots so that perhaps we won't take our inheritance and flush it down the toilet. But that takes humility and we seem to be in short supply of that.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book provides a history and analysis of the writings of four famous foreign visitors to the US: Alexis de Tocqueville, Max Weber, GK Chesterton, and Sayyid Qutb. The author provides background on each writer, and then discusses the content of their work. It is interesting, but I thought the author could have provided much more of a comparison of the similarities and differences between the various writers. He ends by arguing that the US should take foreign critiques more seriously, but seems most engaged with the more polemical religious writers. Some interesting things that I learned reading this book were that the US has long suffered from high levels of violence, and that American religion has long contained more of a social aspect than religion in other countries does.

[Drew Meisel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book that goes into great detail of 4 very different men from 4 different time periods in American history. From both a religious and historical perspective, it is fascinating to see what American culture is from non-Americans and to see how it has influenced the rest of the world

If you have any interest in economics, religion, politics, history, or agriculture, this book is a must read

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed WHAT THEY SAW IN AMERICA very much. The book is, or seems to me, a combination biography, history, socio-political-philosophy. I typically read biography and history, so I found this a bit different. I like that the author chose different travelers from different points in time: Alexis de Tocqueville (Tocq) (1830), Max Weber (Max) (1904), Gilbert Keith Chesterton (GKC) (1920) and Sayyid Qutb (Q). Although I wanted to discredit each traveler's disparaging comments about America, I had to concede that they may have had a point. Tocq. was an aristocrat from France criticizing poor immigrants trying to make a buck, calling them acquisitive or having a "mercantilist spirit". Nevertheless Tocq. seemed to have a finger on the pulse of American in 1830 plus one hundred years. Max seemed to be the most objective observer during his visit, which I thought interesting. GKC was the most magnanimous of all looking for the "lurking positive" in American life. I wearied of Q and his myopic viewpoint, although I understand his concerns. All in all, this is a great study in what outsiders observe in America. It is a timely study, interesting, at times hard to accept, but in the end a good instructive light shone on America as seen by outsiders. Highly recommended.
If I have one criticism, it is that I wanted to know more background of each traveler. Consequently, I purchased Joseph Epstein on Tocqueville, an autobiography on GKC, and, going back to a college text, Max Weber's Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.