![]() He spent nine months criss-crossing the young country, traveling mostly by steamboat, but. Alexis de Tocqueville’s official purpose was to study the American penal system, but his real interest was America herself. ![]() He's particularly struck by the level of civic engagement he witnesses amongst the average citizen, and by the uniform pride Americans take in simply being citizens of a free republic. In 1831 an ambitious and unusually perceptive twenty-five-year-old French aristocrat visited the United States. He examines the role of women, the issue of slavery, the tensions between North and South - nothing escapes his lens. As both a historian and political philosopher, he dissects our government at the federal, state and local level carefully weighing its merits and faults. The result of his effort was a grand tour of the new nation (with particular emphasis on New England) and a two volume work entitled Democracy in America - it remains one of the great political and social critiques of all time.Ĭutting right to heart of the matter, Alexis is a fan of the United States and there is much he feels the world can learn from this young, boisterous, republican democracy recently birthed on the North American continent. Here's the Reader's Digest synopsis: Alexis De Tocqueville was a French researcher sent to the United States in 1831 to study the American prison system, but he would end up using his visit as a pretext, for his real aim was in conducting an in-depth examination of American society as a whole. I took the book in small bites and knocked out a couple chapters a day until the beast was slain. Some passages were stirring and others were a slog. The other day, I finally finished reading Democracy in America by Alexis De Tocqueville. ![]()
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