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| Democracy in America: Abridged Edition (P.S.) | 
 enlarge | Authors: Alexis De Tocqueville, Scott A. Sandage
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
Buy New: $7.98
You Save: $7.97 (50%)
Buy New/Used from $6.78
Avg. Customer Rating:  (32 reviews)
Sales Rank: 202896
Format: Abridged
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Edition: Abridged
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 464
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5 x 1.3
ISBN: 0060008733
Dewey Decimal Number: 320.973
EAN: 9780060008734
ASIN: 0060008733
Publication Date: June 1, 2007
Release Date: June 12, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Fabulous December 28, 2005
12 out of 15 found this review helpful
This edition should be a must read for all.
This edited version seems to contain all the salient thoughts of de Tocqueville for those of us who don't want to get bogged down in a tome. I will not repeat who he was or the subjects covered -- suffice to say if you want to understand some of todays America - what it stands for and how it is goverened this seems to be a great primer on its government and peoples.
The amazing thing to me is how much is still true and how amazingly insightfuld Tocqueville was. He is still widely quoted even today.
Democracy in America September 5, 2005
0 out of 77 found this review helpful
In truth I haven't read the book as of yet, however, it was purchased to read De Torqueville thoughts of democracy and how both countries could profess democracy and uphold slavery.
As far as the sellar delivering this time in resonable time I would rate them as 4 star.
What America is really about January 11, 2005
15 out of 18 found this review helpful
De Tocqueville's observations of America in the early 19th century remain surprisingly relevant to America in the 21st century. As some reviewers have pointed out, his predictions are uncannily accurate. However it is De Tocqueville's understanding of what America is - and isn't - was what struck me most powerfully. Essentially De Tocqueville wanted to find out what made America "tick" and present an arguement as to why our democracy would not work in Europe. (The author was a nobleman, mind you.) His observations remain true to who Americans are, and serve as a reminder of who we hope to be.
Among the uniquely "American" features De Tocqueville writes about are our society without rigid class lines - that each citizen understood himself to be the equal of all others; the nobility of work (or rather that work - and working hard - was not only expected, but looked forward to); the informality of address (and of dress). The sense of social and economic opportunity that America provides through these attitudes, and the vast space and immense resources the country has that enables Americans to literally make (or re-make) themselves. And perhaps most importantly, the seriousness with which Americans took their rights - most notable among them, the right to vote and run for public office.
There are, of course, specific instances that remind the reader that these observations are over 150 years old - the carriage driver who nearly comes to blows with a German duke, or the graphic telling of the volumes of tobacco juice spraying passengers on a sternwheeler come to mind. However it was refreshing to see that what it is to be "American" essentially has not changed since Jackson was President.
Exactly what we need in the Arab world November 23, 2004
27 out of 40 found this review helpful
One question seemed to have dominated American policy-makers and elites in the wake of september 11: How can we make people in the Arab world (and to a lesser extent Europe and the rest of the world) understand what America is really about?
I think there is nowhere better to start than De-Tocqueville's "Democracy in America". A Frenchman and a social observer, he offers an analysis of the phenomenon that is America that is way different than what we Arabs are exposed to. My family mostly gets its info about America from Hollywood, McDonald, Gap and Arabic media (which has good reasons to fret about American interventionism in our part of the world).
The reactionary and ad-hoc measures that the American policy-makers are taking today (like establishing the scandalous and disenfranchised Al-hurra satellite Arabic TV station) only undermine and insult the intelligence of Arabs who see right-through such gambits. We need a thorough, eloquent, compassionate and outreaching approach like that of de-Tocqueville to convince us that after all, America is a force for good in the world...
Ideally, our own Arab de-Tocqueville should emerge, though I'm not very optimistic... today, America to Arabs is not just a curiosity like it used to be to the French in the 19th century, it's something much worse than that, this is why action has to be taken...
The pioneer and still greatest American social observer November 22, 2004
9 out of 12 found this review helpful
How did an outsider, a foreign nobleman understand more about American democracy than so many learned observers from within? What gave DeTocqueville the capacity to understand fundamental characteristics of American life in such a way that even today his categories of description are meaningful to us?
DeTocqueville so some of the unique qualities of the American genius,the American capacity for association and free action together, the capacity to deal with the small details of everyday practical life while dreaming in the broadest terms.He saw the danger in this most democratic of societies of a tyranny of the majority which might make real freedom in difference of opinion difficult to maintain. He foresaw that two giants , the United States and Russia would at one stage come to take over the center of world political life. He marvelled at the rich capacity of Americans to risk and set out for the country ahead, to be pioneers westward.
He saw much about America which it is still possible to see today. And yet given the vast changes technical civilization has brought about, given the tremendous developments in all areas of human learning it is difficult to say that DeTocqueville can be the true and proper guide to the path of American democracy today.
What can be said is that he was the pioneer social observer who saw more into the essence of America than any native American did. And in doing so he left us a great literary classic rich in profound observations most of which are of course are not even hinted at in this small review.
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