What do you think?
Rate this book
Democracy in America: Volumes 1&2
"Democracy in America" represents a world classic of the political thought which examines the democratic revolution that had taken place worldwide at the time. The main focus of this two volume book is an analysis of why republican representative democracy has succeeded in the United States. Tocqueville discuses on the future of democracy in the United States as well as possible threats and dangers to democracy. Alexis Charles Henri Clérel, Viscount de Tocqueville (1805-1859)was a French political scientist, historian and diplomat. He was best known for his works "Democracy in America" and "The Old Regime and the Revolution". Tocqueville was active in French politics, first under the July Monarchy and then during the Second Republic which succeeded the February 1848 Revolution.
- GenresPolitics
1018 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 19, 2018
13 people are currently reading
72 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 29, 2020
While I will be the first to assert that all the basic principles of human behavior can be observed in every century, I was shocked at how accurately Tocqueville was able to describe the trajectory of America based on his observations made in the 1830s.
Volume one (1835) is a beautiful series of vignettes of American life before the Civil War. The author finds much to celebrate and much to view with grave suspicion, and he seeks to provide a full picture of American life. He has deep insights into the American character, and what sets the American apart from other peoples of the world (again, both for good and for ill).
Volume two (1840) approaches the same subject, but begins this time from philosophical principles. After a slow and plodding series of reflections on abstract topics about human nature, Tocqueville shares a series of conclusions that shocked me. I did not at all intuit that his various observations were leading to this peroration. [Spoilers for the last chapter follow.]
He sees that Americans will inevitably concentrate more and more power in their governments (to my amusement, he noted that New York was more advanced in this regard than any other State), ultimately resulting in, not a “despotism” or “tyranny” as those words have heretofore been understood, but rather a government that encourages its people to live a "perpetual childhood", imposing upon its citizens "small complicated rules [...]. Seldom forced by it to act, they are constantly restrained from acting," until they are reduced to "a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd." This could have been a facebook diatribe written in 2020, and I remain deeply impressed that anyone living in the 1830s could already see the peculiar problems of modern life that certain fringes of contemporary discourse like to denounce as the bad effect of their particular political enemy, as if these phenomena did not date back 180 years and more.
Alexis de Tocqueville made three other particular observations that stand out in my recollection: he has a marvelous extended illustration of reckless American industriousness (Chapter XVIII, the final chapter of volume one); he explains why he thinks America will always produce relatively many great engineers and scientists but relatively few "great artists, fine poets, or celebrated writers" (Chapter IX, volume two); and an unforgettable series of chapters (XXII and following, volume two) which begin with and exploration of "Why Democratic Nations Are Naturally Desirous of Peace, and Democratic Armies of War" and which conclude with a prediction that America will engage in a virtually endless series of continual wars. Joined to his other comments about the centralization of power as regards the regulation of business, I think it not unfair to say that Tocqueville predicted a military-industrial complex well over a century before President Eisenhower made that idea famous. Beyond these three areas, his observations about the particular place that religion (and clergymen) hold in nineteenth century American life are especially worthy of note.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in contemporary American politics. Reading it will prevent you from thinking that any of our problems are new. I am not at all schooled in political science, and there may well be many better books on this theme, but I have trouble imagining that any of them are this well-written. Volume one especially is an engrossing read on a subject that could easily be boring. The author may not persuade you on each of his points, but his conversation will certainly be enjoyable.
Volume one (1835) is a beautiful series of vignettes of American life before the Civil War. The author finds much to celebrate and much to view with grave suspicion, and he seeks to provide a full picture of American life. He has deep insights into the American character, and what sets the American apart from other peoples of the world (again, both for good and for ill).
Volume two (1840) approaches the same subject, but begins this time from philosophical principles. After a slow and plodding series of reflections on abstract topics about human nature, Tocqueville shares a series of conclusions that shocked me. I did not at all intuit that his various observations were leading to this peroration. [Spoilers for the last chapter follow.]
He sees that Americans will inevitably concentrate more and more power in their governments (to my amusement, he noted that New York was more advanced in this regard than any other State), ultimately resulting in, not a “despotism” or “tyranny” as those words have heretofore been understood, but rather a government that encourages its people to live a "perpetual childhood", imposing upon its citizens "small complicated rules [...]. Seldom forced by it to act, they are constantly restrained from acting," until they are reduced to "a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd." This could have been a facebook diatribe written in 2020, and I remain deeply impressed that anyone living in the 1830s could already see the peculiar problems of modern life that certain fringes of contemporary discourse like to denounce as the bad effect of their particular political enemy, as if these phenomena did not date back 180 years and more.
Alexis de Tocqueville made three other particular observations that stand out in my recollection: he has a marvelous extended illustration of reckless American industriousness (Chapter XVIII, the final chapter of volume one); he explains why he thinks America will always produce relatively many great engineers and scientists but relatively few "great artists, fine poets, or celebrated writers" (Chapter IX, volume two); and an unforgettable series of chapters (XXII and following, volume two) which begin with and exploration of "Why Democratic Nations Are Naturally Desirous of Peace, and Democratic Armies of War" and which conclude with a prediction that America will engage in a virtually endless series of continual wars. Joined to his other comments about the centralization of power as regards the regulation of business, I think it not unfair to say that Tocqueville predicted a military-industrial complex well over a century before President Eisenhower made that idea famous. Beyond these three areas, his observations about the particular place that religion (and clergymen) hold in nineteenth century American life are especially worthy of note.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in contemporary American politics. Reading it will prevent you from thinking that any of our problems are new. I am not at all schooled in political science, and there may well be many better books on this theme, but I have trouble imagining that any of them are this well-written. Volume one especially is an engrossing read on a subject that could easily be boring. The author may not persuade you on each of his points, but his conversation will certainly be enjoyable.
June 23, 2022
Must read, amazingly a Frenchman understanding is better than we know ourselves
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews