Customer Reviews

Democracy in America, Volume 1

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This Kindle edition is a good rendition of this work.

Alexis De Tocqueville was simply of one of the great social scientists writing about America and Democracy. From reading the book I deduced that Tocqueville was a social scientist before Marx! He compares European culture and government with the fledgling culture and democracy he observes in America. He is very much impressed with what he sees taking place in America in the 1830's and hopes it will spread to Europe. He at first believed that America's prosperity was simply due to geography and their distance from powerful neighbors, he abandons this idea after his visit to America. He comes to realize that the West is not being peopled "by new European immigrants to America, but by Americans who he believes have no adversity to taking risks." Tocqueville comes to see that Americans are the most broadly educated and politically advanced people in the world and one of the reasons for the success of our form of government. He also foretells America's industrial preeminence and strength through the unfettered spread of ideas and human industry.

Tocqueville also saw the insidious damage that the institution of slavery was causing the country and predicted some 30 years before the Civil War that slavery would probable cause the states to fragment from the union. He also the emergence of stronger states rights over the power of the federal government. He held fast to his belief that the greatest danger to democracy was the trend toward the concentration of power by the federal government. He predicted wrongly that the union would probably break up into two or three countries because of regional interests and differences. This idea is the only one about America that he gets wrong. Despite some of his misgivings, Tocqueville, saw that democracy is an "inescapable development" of the modern world. The arguments in the "Federalist Papers" were greater then most people realized. He saw a social revolution coming that continues throughout the world today.

Tocqueville realizes at the very beginning of the "industrial revolution" how industry, centralization, and democracy strengthened each other and moved forward together. I am convinced that Tocqueville is still the preeminent observer of America but is also the father of social science. A must read for anyone interested in American history, political philosophy or the social sciences.

My fiance is taking an advanced level government course and it was one of her required readings. I decided to expand my horizons and read along with her. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes to know history of our government and how we were perceived historically.

The Kindle edition has NO hyperlinks in the document. It gets better.

When you search on the word "chapter," none of the chapter beginnings are found, supposedly because the chapter heading is an IMAGE, not text.

I'll try other editions, and if needed, a download from Mobi, and report back on whether I can find a version of this book that can be used with a linked Table of Contents.

This is excellent for a free edition, but is abridged. Anyone who wants to get the essence of the work should buy this edition, but for the complete work, try other editions.

There's no table of contents in this edition which is very frustrating for a work this long. Hopefully the editors can make changes and include an update with a ToC

Tocqueville came to America to expose himself to something new, a representative democracy. The words he penned while he toured the world is both epic and everlasting. Many people overlook this author because they assume it will be heavy and outdated, but they would be wrong. Here is a person who saw something fabulous and terrifying in how we ran our country. Concepts such as the American Dream seemed to go against everything European scholars spoke up, yet it works. Take a chance and enjoy a little Tocqueville!!!

It is a good product, you will read a full version of such an important book. But I thought I was buying just a cheap version, not a notepad version, which is what actually is. A purely notepad written version of the book. It doesn`t affect the content, but it clearly bothers after sometime reading.

If you are really willing to read this book and don`t have any money, it is a good choice. But if I were you, I would take some time and save some money to buy a better version.

This is a well written, well thought out look at american government and it effects on society. Some of it is a little dated, but it is well worth the read.

It's great to have free, historical content like this writing of Toqueville available on Kindle. But this particular edition includes a dated post-civil war "Foreward" written by Sen. John T Morgan that is a horribly racist distraction from Toqueville's original offering. I'd love to have a free version of Democracy in America stripped of Morgan's Foreward, or at least including a date and editor's note of the context of Morgan's commentary.