Customer Reviews

Democracy in America - Volume 2

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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 Many people overlook this author because they assume it will be heavy and outdated, but they would be wrong.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!!!

This Kindle edition is a good rendition of the book.

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.

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.