Why people recommend it
Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville is the classic nineteenth-century sociological and political study analyzing the structure, culture, and foundational character of American democracy through the eyes of an observant French visitor. Ben Shapiro strongly recommended the text on The Ezra Klein Show, describing it as the single best description of what America is and ought to be, and later referenced it on All-In to discuss traditional American pioneering mobility. Stephen Hahn also recommended the book on The Ezra Klein Show, advising readers to approach it not as an untouchable iconic text, but as an insightful outsider's perspective. Jeremy Carl mentioned Tocqueville's observations during an episode of Interesting Times to argue historical points regarding immigration rates in early America. Nick Adams discussed the famous French philosopher's insights on Timcast IRL regarding the moral foundation and constitutional genius of the American people. Additionally, Ezra Klein, Jamie Raskin, and Ernst Roets all referenced Tocqueville's observations across various podcast appearances to analyze American exceptionalism, political crises, and fifty-state federalist experiments.
Who recommended it
- Ben Shapiro Recommended
- Niall Ferguson Discussed
- Jeremy Carl Discussed
- Nick Adams Discussed
- Ezra Klein Discussed
- Stephen Hahn Recommended
- Jamie Raskin Discussed
- Ernst Roets Discussed
- Judith Warner Discussed
Ben Shapiro — 2 mentions
“I think that Democracy in America by Dtoqueville is still the best description of what America is and and in many ways ought to be.”
“The traditional American dream for most people was cross an ocean, go to a place you don't know. If that doesn't work, cross right, cross a mountain, build I mean Dville talks about this in democracy in America that that Americans were famous for for basically building these kind of ramshackle huts trying to set up shop and if it”
Niall Ferguson — 2 mentions
“And then when we read Democracy in America, it became even clearer what Tocqueville's project was...”
“What Tocqueville noticed, the great French political theorist, Alexis de Tocqueville, when he came to the United States before writing his great book, Democracy in America, was that Americans then, did not expect the government to solve their problems.”
Jeremy Carl — 1 mention
“So there were huge periods of time that we had very low immigration in this country, and if you actually read democracy in America by Tocqueville, he doesn’t mention the word immigrant or immigration even once in that book, the US is 2 percent foreign born at that time.”
Nick Adams — 1 mention
“And Alexis Detoqueville, the famous French philosopher, he came out here and he said that America is great because America is good. If America ceases to be good, she will cease to be great. But he also said in Democracy in America that the true genius of these people of Americans that he was writing about are their ability to”
Ezra Klein — 1 mention
“One of the parts of your book I found interesting was your analysis of Alexis Dtoqueville's democracy in America. That's normally seen as a document laying out the early structure of America's inevitable ascent into liberal democracy.”
Stephen Hahn — 1 mention
“Well, first of all, I think Toqueville's Democracy in America would be a good place to start. not going into it thinking of it as the iconic text, but going into it thinking about it as someone who is an observer from the outside looking in”
Jamie Raskin — 1 mention
“So, um, you know, you got to hand at Donald Trump at least.”
Ernst Roets — 1 mention
“That's very tovillian. The the Alexis detoville when he wrote democracy in in America he said well this is what is going to make America great in in the 1830s is well and America's got that right with its 51 state or 50 state experiments.”
Judith Warner — 1 mention
“it was something that was remarked upon by dville when he wrote Democracy in America”