Two cheers for America

摘要

Alexis de tocqueville was so enthralled by the nine months he spent in the United States in 1831 that he wrote two fat volumes about the country. He admired the vigour of its democratic institutions and the entrepreneurial spirit of its people, which was rapidly transforming a vast wilderness into a polished civilisation. And he approved of the way that the country's potential vices were moderated by its commonplace virtues, particularly its civic pride and religious observance. The proud French aristocrat was happy to call himself "half Yankee".rnBut in the 1840s and 1850s de Tocqueville's views on America took a darker turn, as a new collection of his writings makes clear. ("Tocqueville on America After 1840: Letters and Other Writings"). Public life was dominated by people who lacked "moderation, sometimes probity, above all education". America's sense of "exaggerated pride in its strength" was promoting military adventurism. "Primitivism" stalked the land. "What is certain is that, for some years, you have strangely abused the advantages given to you by God," he chided.