Democracy in America
by Alexis de Tocqueville
A French aristocrat's 1835 analysis of American equality, associations, individualism, tyranny of the majority, soft despotism. Still the best book on America.
Read it if…
you want the deepest outside view of American character.
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Skip it if…
you want brevity; use an abridgment.
Try instead: African Founders →
Three things you will actually use
- Associations are the muscle of democracy.
- Equality has risks.
- Self-interest rightly understood.
Do this first
Read the chapters on associations and on the tyranny of the majority.
Our verdict
Tocqueville.
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Compare with other Character books
The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787
Gordon S. Wood · Character
Wood's foundation.
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