Important concepts to Remember when Reading Democracy in America

There are several important concepts to remember when reading "Democracy in America"

 

1. At its most basic, "Democracy in America" is a foreigners view of the culture and government of America.

This book was written by a visiting Frenchman, Alexis de Tocqueville. It contains his observations about America in approximately 1830.

 

2. This book was written by a guy from France for his fellow citizens of France.

This book was not written for Americans, nor even for the British. It was written by a Frenchman for the French.

 

3. This book can be considered a book on comparative governments.

For most of the book, Alexis de Tocqueville is comparing and contrasting the government of America to the government of France. I firmly believe that it is within all of the comparing and contrasting that we learn the most from this book. We learn both aspects from this book. That is, we learn not only about American government, but we also learn a great deal about French government.

 

4. This book can be considered a book on comparative cultures

As an extension of comparing governments, Alexis de Tocqueville also compares cultures. We learn a great deal about French culture and the British culture, as he explains how American culture differs from either of those. Reading the book in its entirety, we realize how different the American culture is from any culture in Europe.

 

5. France was undergoing revolutions at the time

We must remember that France had been going through a rough period. France had revolutions and counter-revolutions. There was the reign of terror, where many people were put into prison on dubious grounds. Alexis de Tocqueville's parents, and then Alexis himself, lived during these chaotic times. It would be natural for any citizen of France to think about the possible systems of government.

 

Thus, "Democracy in America" is a study of how the United States government works. The main goals of this book, as I see it, were observations and reporting. I believe that Alexis de Tocqueville hoped his observations and analysis would help France find its perfect form of government.

Why Alexis De Tocqueville wrote Democracy in America

Why did Alexis de Tocqueville write this book? Why did he do all the work to travel, talk with people, and write down his observations in a 1,000 page book? As I see it, de Tocqueville did all this as a way to compare governments, for the troubled times of France

 

Alexis de Tocqueville knew that the United States had a fairly successful government. In contrast, his native France had been having revolutions during his life. Therefore, I believe that his idea was to study America, see how it worked, then take his observations back to France. In this book, he would have:

1. objective observations

2. opinions of things which worked, and therefore might do well in France, and

3. opinions of things which didn't work, or which worked in America but wouldn't work well in France.

His focus was not so much on America, but on the government in America. He wanted to understand the culture, understand the government, and then report his findings to the leaders of France. This is why Alexis de Tocqueville wrote the book "Democracy in America."

 

Summaries of Democracy in America, Alexis De Tocqueville,

"Democracy in America" is a famous and historic book. There is much we can learn from "Democracy in America." However, this book is a very difficult read.

 

There is a scene from one of my favorite movies which expresses these twin concepts of the famous book. The scene goes something like this:

"I haven't actually read Democracy in America."

"But I thought you said it was the most important book on democracy ever written."

"That's all I know about it. That's all anybody knows about it. Few people have actually read it."

 

When you pick up a copy of the book, and start to read it, you will see how true that statement is.

 

The book is long (my version is almost 1000 pages.) The writing isn't very good. (Alexis de Tocqueville does not write clearly.) Therefore, as that movie scene mentioned, very few people have actually read "Democracy in America."

 

Where does that leave us? Well, I am one those few who HAS read this book.

Therefore, I hope to guide you through the book in these webpages.

 

These are my goals:

1. To give you a basic understanding of the book, as a whole.

2. To give you a perspective, should you read the book, which will help you understand the book more easily.

3. To provide some analysis and quotes from this large book.

 

In the coming sections I will provide some summaries of the book which may be useful and interesting to you.

 

 

 

 

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