Democracy in America
by Alexis de Tocqueville · first published 1945
36% recommend63% neutral1% critical
Why HN recommends it
A Frenchman's 1830s account of American culture, associations and equality that still reads as relevant to US politics today; suits anyone wanting the roots of American character or a outsider's view.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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A lot of "must reads" depend on your background and interest. GEB for example I would classify as a must for anyone with a computer science background, The Glory of their Times for any baseball fan, Democracy in America for anyone into American politics.
on “Ask HN: What are some must read books?” ↗The best extended treatment, still, 170 years later, is Tocqueville’s Democracy in America.
on “Going to America: A Ponzi scheme that works” ↗…I'm thinking of Sparta though, which was by many accounts pretty culturally uniform and egalitarian/meritocratic, at least for citizens. * * * I think the best analysis I know is still Tocqueville’s Democracy in America. I also recommend The Federalist Papers, particularly Nos. 10 and 51, for a pragmatic solution to these kinds of problems, based on the decades of first-hand experience some smart blokes like Madison…
on “Medieval Iceland and the Absence of Government” ↗…citizens and responsive at a local level to local differences, etc. * * * The why is in my opinion best described in Machiavelli’s Discourses on Livy, Montesquieu’s Spirit of the Laws, Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, and Madison/Hamilton/Jefferson’s Federalist Papers (and you might look at Locke, Rousseau, Hobbes, etc. too if you’re feeling extra ambitious). The complexities are somewhat longer and more involved…
on “Too Rich to Live?” ↗…thing; concentration of extreme percentages of total wealth into a tiny fraction of the populace is a bad thing. A good explanation of the difference this makes shows up in chapter 3 of de Tocqueville's "Democracy in America", where he discusses the impact of different inheritance laws on American and European society. The traditional European system of primogeniture created and favored hereditary aristocracy; the American…
on “Real v. Imagined wealth distribution in the US” ↗…appreciate your civility, and contributions to HN over the years, but also recognize the unAmerican nature of your ideas. What concerns me is that your ideas are infecting our young people. I recommend Democracy in America written by Tocqueville in ~1840. It's available for free on the internet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_in_America
on “Uber and Lyft Investors Are Looking for Signs of a Détente” ↗I'm not sure I understand your question. From, say, France's perspective? Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy In America may be what you're looking for. More recently, I'm sure that there are tons of French perspectives on the US available. Or do you mean from the perspective of ancient Rome or Greece? That would more…
on “Ask HN: United States' history from other ancient civilizations' perspective” ↗…of the country that abolished slavery surged ahead economically, it's difficult to see how one could argue that slavery caused the US' economic development. Alexis de Tocqueville wrote about this in Democracy in America. It's well worth reading, to see a contemporary Frenchman's impressions of the stark difference in economic development between the Southern slave and Northern free societies: https://www.tota.world/article/1860/
Part of me agrees completely but the other part of me remembers reading Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America“ and feeling that he absolutely nailed it.
on “The Swiss wanderer who found the soul of 1950s Japan” ↗…resilience in the face of profound adversity. Just as I was fading a few paragraphs in, one of the straw men (IMHO) thrown out caught my eye. How had I not heard of Alexis de Tocqueville's 1835 critique, Democracy in America? If you want to wrestle with someone making a much better form of the argument you (understandably) thought was in the article, check it out: https://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/DETOC/ch4_06.htm Honestly,…
on “Why are so many adults acting just like children?” ↗…essays. http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa10.htm http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa51.htm (And if especially ambitious, should then read Machiavelli’s Discourses on Livy, and Tocqueville’s Democracy in America)
on “Increasing complexity: A day in the life of the president” ↗Why don't you read "about democracy in America" from Tocqueville ? It's more than 200 years old but it's very relevant even to this day to understand the differences in terms of culture between France and the US. And the culture shapes the laws and…
on “The French way of cancer treatment” ↗…of US culture and politics, but I think it's worth trying to see something deeper at work than simply "they're dummies". I'm sure you have, but if you have not you should read Alexis de Tocqueville's "Democracy in America". The ideas you're presenting here may as well have been quoted from it.
on “Living in Switzerland ruined me for America and its lousy work culture (2016)” ↗…were left were voluntary associations. The government had pretty much pulled out. Tocqueville wrote extensively about associations and their beneficial impact on society. You should give his book, Democracy in America, a read. Here's an intro: http://www.learningtogive.org/resources/philanthropy-describ...
on “The Strange Disappearance of Cooperation in America (2013)” ↗>some time after an event Or before. I learnt more about 21st C USA by reading Tocqueville's Democracy in America (1835) than anything written since.
on “Stop Reading News (2013)” ↗