Democracy in America (I)
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~200,000 words · 944 passages
Cite this work
- APAAlexis de Tocqueville. (n.d.). Democracy in America — Volume 1 [Democracy in America (I)]. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america-volume-1
- MLAAlexis de Tocqueville. Democracy in America — Volume 1 [Democracy in America (I)]. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america-volume-1.
- ChicagoAlexis de Tocqueville. Democracy in America — Volume 1 [Democracy in America (I)]. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america-volume-1.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
The first volume: American institutions seen close up — the township, the courts, the press, the parties, the federation — and what makes them work.
Context and history
Tocqueville travelled to the United States in 1831 on an official commission to study its prisons, and the book that came of it was something else. This first volume, of 1835, is descriptive and optimistic; the second, of 1840, is far more abstract and far darker, and it is there that the famous 'soft despotism' appears — a society of equals surrendering itself to a tutelary power. They should not be confused, nor cited as though they were one book written at one time.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
always disowned. There are virtuous and peaceful individuals whose pure morality, quiet habits, affluence, and talents fit them to be the leaders of the surrounding population; their love of their country is sincere, and they are prepared to make the greatest sacrifices to its welfare, but they confound the abuses of civilization with its benefits, and the idea of evil is inseparable in their minds from that of novelty. Not far from this class is another party, whose object is to materialize mankind, to hit upon what is expedient without heeding what is just, to acquire knowledge without faith, and prosperity apart from virtue; assuming the title of the champions of modern civilization, and placing themselves in a station which they usurp with insolence, and from which they are driven by their own unworthiness. Where are we then? The religionists are the enemies of liberty, and the friends of liberty attack religion; the high-minded and the noble advocate subjection, and the meanest and most servile minds preach independence; honest and enlightened citizens are opposed to all progress, whilst men without patriotism and without principles are the apostles of civilization and of intelligence. Has such been the fate of the centuries which have preceded our own? and has man always inhabited a world like the present, where nothing is linked together, where virtue is without genius, and genius without honor; where the love of order is confounded with a taste for oppression, and the holy rites of freedom with a contempt of law; where the light thrown by conscience on human actions is dim, and where nothing seems to be any longer forbidden or allowed, honorable or shameful, false or true?…