Democracy in America, Volume 2

by Alexis de Tocqueville, Antonio Sánchez De Bustamante, Alexis deTocqueville, et al.

Book Overview

This anthology is a thorough introduction to classic literature for those who have not yet experienced these literary masterworks. For those who have known and loved these works in the past, this is... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679728260
• ISBN13: 9780679728269
• Release Date: August 1990
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Length: 528 Pages
• Weight: 1.12 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Astute Observer of America

De Tocqueville was simply of one of the great social scientists writing about America and Democracy. From reading the book I deduced that De 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". De 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. De 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 2 or 3 countries because of regional interests and differences. This idea is the only one about America that he gets wrong. Despite some of his misgivings, De Tocqueville, saw that democracy is an "inescapable development" of the modern world. The arguments in the "Federalist Papers" were greater than most people realized. He saw a social revolution coming that continues throughout the world today. De 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 De 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.

Smashing follow-up to volume 1

I didn't think it was possible for Tocqueville's to outdo volume 1 of "Democracy in Amercia" but I was definitely proved wrong! Volume 2 is more deep and philosophical in its approach to understanding American democracy and ties up any loose ends that might have occured in volume 1. A book that needs to be read now more than ever before, volume 2 deserves to be considered among the Great Books of Western civilization.