Btw has anyone actually read it? Is it worth reading? Tbh, the Amazon description doesn't sound very appealing. Kinda LIB little white supremacy even.

Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-59) came to America in 1831 to see what a great republic was like. What struck him most was the country's equality of conditions, its democracy. The book he wrote on his return to France, Democracy in America, is both the best ever written on democracy and the best ever written on America. It remains the most often quoted book about the United States, not only because it has something to interest and please everyone, but also because it has something to teach everyone.

[–] DornerStan@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 8 hours ago

I read it years ago and remember exactly 0% of it

[–] axont@hexbear.net 22 points 15 hours ago

I've read it but I mean everything he wrote is just kinda known to you already if you have even a passing interest in 19th century American history. It's interesting seeing a foreign perspective but also I don't know if you're missing much. Like hey did you know Americans have a bunch of newspapers and also have a ton of competing churches and also rich people have a bunch of slaves and also native Americans are excluded from society.

[–] WalleyeWarrior@midwest.social 29 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (2 children)

It's not a whitewashing that the description makes it out to be. Tocequville is working for the July Monarchy and so he was interested in how liberal democracy in America ~~suffered from~~ compared to the aristocratic structure of post-Napoleonic France. He admires the individualism of the frontier settlers while also pointing out that the US constitution has no actual mechanisms to enforce said liberal democracy when faced with an executive that doesn't respect the separation of powers.

[–] Mardoniush@hexbear.net 18 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

It's also an attempt to ward off any Jacobinism, he started writing it shortly after the June 1832 "Le Miserables" revolt. (One of the first times the Red Socialist flag was raised.)

[–] JoeByeThen@hexbear.net 8 points 16 hours ago

Gotcha. That might be interesting. Thanks

[–] reader@hexbear.net 9 points 14 hours ago

honestly my only familiarity is from excerpts in Liberalism: A counter-history by losurdo and it didn't seem too appealing but it may kind of be an interesting historical perspective on the USA far before its hegemony

[–] CrawlMarks@hexbear.net 14 points 17 hours ago

It is probably an easy read. In college we read some passages from it and thr passage I remember was him talking about how Americans are anxious all tbe time and work too much.