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Detoqueville's Observations Of American Culture

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DeToqueville’s Observations of American Culture

Alexis DeTocqueville was a French-men who set out on a mission to observe and summarize his experiences within the new system of Democracy. Toqueville’s initial objective was to analyze and re-create the prisons of America. His visitations of penitentiaries all around the country during a nine month journey brought him experiences and findings that he had never expected. Toqueville’s journals and his book “Democracy in America” are essential in our analysis of the 19th century because they provide us with a detailed and unbiased foreign opinion on affairs within America. Upon his return to France, Toqueville started to work on an analysis of culture, politics, and economics in the young country. His most notable observations were those on race, religion, and views on democratic rule. …show more content…

This analysis shows us how advanced Toqueville’s thinking was, he picks up on a subtle attitude of superiority from the young girl. He perceives this attitude as the young girls nature and notices the sheer amount of racial separation in the country. Toqueville also states that the Indian woman was almost flaunting her freedom. She realizes he is observing them and without worry, pushes tyne child away and flees from Toqueville, a white male. The black woman would never have shown such disrespect for Toqueville and he makes note of it. I find it extremely interesting that the Indian woman was even in the scene, she had no duty to be there. The only explanation would be a companionship between her and the black woman. This analysis of the situation is great because it is puzzled together by a mind that is very inexperienced with different

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“I have tried to see not differently but further…”(Tocqueville, 1835) was Alexis de Tocqueville’s conclusion to the introduction of his perennial classic text Democracy in America, and adumbrates to the reader of his modern ideas and observations that were to follow. At the same time, he measures the progress of society through its relationship with equality and liberty. In this paper, I will highlight Tocqueville’s use of equality and liberty to compare the past and the modern, and establish his views on the effects of these concepts with society and each other. Finally, I will put forth that Tocqueville does not favour one concept over the other, but notes the complex relationship between the two and the importance of the co-existence of liberty and equality for a society of people. To begin, let us build the base case to compare with and look the past as defined by Tocqueville, with emphasis on equality and liberty.

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