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Alexis de Tocqueville Message Board


Renfield posts on 12/17/2008 1:56:43 AM deToqueville's Democracy in America After hearing about this book 100 times, on CSPAN etc., I've picked it up and plodded through half of it. In his mid twenties he visited the United States for a nine month tour then he spent eight or ten years writing his commentary. One must admire his thoroughness. He must have thought about it most of those years. Like so many European visitors to our country he can't grasp the character of the people. He admires the government of Massachussetts and little else. He thinks Andrew Jackson was a mediocrity. He can't understand why a successful American, who has a little capital put aside, would choose to travel further West to see the sites instead of visiting the cathedrals of Europe. He thinks the democratic character of the people should doom the isolated nation in any prolonged challenge. He couldn't anticipate the civil war. He was immature but then I read it in my middle age. I'm hoping for some redeeming brilliance in the last half of the book. If he visited for ten years and wrote his book in nine months he might have done better. As a commentary on government this is some poor work compared to The Federalist.


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