“I confess,” he wrote, “that in America I saw more than America I sought the image of democracy itself, with its inclinations, its character, its prejudices, and its passions, in order to learn what we have to fear or hope from its progress.” This feature examines Tocqueville’s argument that the “great democratic revolution” is inevitable and irresistible. And this belief is what motivated his deep interest in America, for his visit convinced him that America had achieved in a peaceful and natural way almost complete “equality of conditions.” By understanding America, he thought that we could not only understand what democracy means, but in a way even glimpse the world’s future. There we learn that although Tocqueville was an aristocrat, he believed that the world was undergoing a “great democratic revolution,” that it is inevitably and irreversibly becoming more and more democratic. The reason for Tocqueville’s interest in these themes is explained in a general Introduction to the whole work.
Volume One describes and analyzes American conditions and political institutions, while Volume Two examines the effect of American democracy on what we would call culture (literature, economics, the family, religion, etc.).
This great book remains arguably one of the two most important books on America political life, the Federalist Papers being the other one.ĭemocracy in America is a large book in two volumes (published five years apart, in 18).
Tocqueville’s sojourn in America did lead to the writing of a book on the American penal system, but its much more important result was the reflection on equality and freedom known as Democracy in America. Throughout, he spoke to Americans of every rank and profession, including two presidents and Charles Carroll, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence.
He visited the bustling Eastern cities, explored the wilderness on the northwestern frontier, and had several adventures on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. He spent nine months criss-crossing the young country, traveling mostly by steamboat, but also sometimes on horseback and by foot. Alexis de Tocqueville’s official purpose was to study the American penal system, but his real interest was America herself. In 1831 an ambitious and unusually perceptive twenty-five-year-old French aristocrat visited the United States.
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