America after Tocqueville: Democracy against Difference

by Harvey Mitchell

Overview

Mitchell's new study uses Tocqueville's Democracy in America to study the condition of democracy in the United States in our own time. First, he addresses tensions in the United States between ideas of equality and the American political system. He then turns to the relationship between this system and American capitalism, and analyzes inclusion and exclusion in American life. Finally, he asks whether Americans have surrendered to what Tocqueville called the materialization of life, and have abandoned their original quest and become radically alienated from politics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521030243
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/02/2006
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	340
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.79(d)

Table of Contents

References to Tocqueville's Democracy in America; Preface; Part I. Paths to Democracy in America: 1. Introduction: thinking about American democracy; 2. Democracy's experiment: from inequality to equality; 3. Achieving a democratic civil society; Part II. Beginnings and Democracy: 4. Beginnings and history: red and white in Tocqueville's America; 5. The New England township before the revolution: Tocqueville's American pastoral; 6. A second beginning: black and white in Tocqueville's America; Part III. American Democracy On Trial: 7. Difference, race, and color in America; 8. Maintaining American democracy; 9. The state, authority, and the people; 10. Conclusion; Works cited; Index.

Editorial Reviews

Harvey Mitchell's new book is a wide-ranging meditation on fundamental tensions in America: between its egalitarian principle and its political system, between its political system and its economic development, between its ideological commitment to inclusiveness and its enduring boundaries of exclusion. America after Tocqueville moves from an incisive historical analysis of Tocqueville's America to a magisterial exploration of current debates on democracy's prospects. The relevance of Tocqueville's classic commentary has never been more comprehensively argued." Seymour Drescher, University of Pittsburgh

"Mitchell uses Tocqueville's writings to delve into questions about equality and diversity in American democracy , which the author sees as continually balancing these two values.... This work examines important issues. Recommended." Choice

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