America after Tocqueville: Democracy against Difference - Hardcover

Mitchell, Harvey

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521812461 ISBN 13: 9780521812467

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2002

Synopsis

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.

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Review:

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

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0521812461
• ISBN 13: 9780521812467
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 338