BookAges 16–18
Democracy in America
Alexis de Tocqueville · 1835
EuropeanAmerican
The greatest book on America by a foreigner. Read the famous chapters (associations, religion, soft despotism) and explore from there.
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Related quotes from the canon
“Americans of all ages, all stations of life, and all types of disposition are forever forming associations.”
— Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1840
“It does not break wills but it softens them, bends them, and directs them; it rarely forces one to act, but it constantly opposes itself to one's acting; it does not destroy, it prevents things from being born; it does not tyrannize, it hinders, compromises, enervates, extinguishes, dazes, and finally reduces each nation to being nothing more than a herd of timid and industrious animals of which the government is the shepherd.”
— Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1840