Tag: Tocqueville

Tocqueville’s Prophetic Word

  

Alexis de Tocqueville was a Frenchman who visited America in 1831. He traveled extensively, made many notes of what he experienced, and wrote them down in a massive tome called Democracy in America. It is a classic, and is still being used today in university political science courses. It points out both the strengths and potential weaknesses he saw in this new nation. It is obvious Tocqueville liked much of what he witnessed in this country, but he also wrote… Read more »

Alexis de Tocqueville & the Government Shepherd

  

Seeing where we are now headed for the next four years as a nation has reminded me of a prescient quote from Alexis de Tocqueville in his classic study Democracy in America. Tocqueville toured the United States in the late 1820s, fascinated by what he saw in the infant republic. Yet he also saw some warning signs. Here’s one of them, which is unfolding before our eyes. Speaking of a government that seeks to “care” for its citizens, he writes,… Read more »

A Tocqueville Prophecy

  

Yesterday, I drew from Alexis de Tocqueville’s classic Democracy in America to show the positive influence of Christianity on early American society. Today, I would like to once again draw from that well of wisdom to highlight what I would consider to be a prophecy of America’s future should it ever succumb to the lure of a large and intrusive federal government. I urge you to read what Tocqueville had to say about this and ask yourself: has this already… Read more »

Tocqueville & American Christianity

  

Alexis de Tocqueville, a Frenchman who toured America from 1831-1833, was a keen observer of what he experienced. He put those observations into a famous book, still used in political sciences courses, called Democracy in America, first published in 1835. Tocqueville quotes can be found throughout the Internet; unfortunately, some of them dealing with religion in America are more legend than fact. I know, since I’ve read the entirety of his book without finding them. However, he did make clear… Read more »