The french revolution, tocqueville thought, saw two great passions at work. For older, but still useful, accounts, compare dorothy s. As democracy in america revealed, tocqueville believed that equality was the great political and social idea of his era, and he thought that the united states offered the most advanced example of equality in action. Tocquevilles father was a royalist prefect from normandy who supported the bourbon monarchy, his greatgrandfather was a liberal aristocrat killed in the french revolution, and his mother was a devout roman. Tocqueville on the naturalness of religious belief law. The first volume of tocquevilles twovolume work was immediately popular throughout europe. These are doctrines of faith, since for tocqueville religion means revealed religion, not a rational or natural religion, such as deism, which other liberals in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had proposed to replace revealed religion. The first english translation, by henry reeve and titled democracy in america a, was published in new york in 1838. He is best known for his works democracy in america appearing in two volumes, 1835 and 1840 and the old regime and the revolution 1856. Christianity as philosophy luk sanders royal higher institute for defence, brussels, belgium. Although not always a consistent thinker, he stands squarely in the classical liberal tradition of understanding the capacity of society to self organize in the absence of a controlling central state. Tocquevilles democratic curiosity about democracy permeates his great book, which was published in two volumes, in 1835 and 1840. This fourvolume book is brimming with insights and sharp observations. Lewis observes in the abolition of man, across different religions.
Tocqueville thus teaches us that religionor the right kind of religionis necessary to human greatness within democracy. The second reason is that there was no democratic revolution in. According to tocqueville, american religion teaches, as the puritan founder john winthrop put it, that freedom means the freedom to do only what is just. Tocqueville on christianity and american democracy the. The european revolution and correspondence with gobineau, edited by john lukacs. Throughout his analysis of america, he draws many outlandish and interesting. This serves as a vital check on the individualistic impulse of the democratic man and offers a fixed moral orientation. Evangelical theological faculty, leuven, belgium correspondence luk. The american republic will endure until the day congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the publics money. One of the noblest enterprises of our time, he added, would be to show that morality, religion and order do not need to be opposed to liberty and the equality of men before the law. Here, olivier zunz goes into further detail on the nineteenthcentury french scholars thoughts on associations and philanthropy.
Some of his most intriguing comments concern women, the. But in the end, they learned a whole heap about american political culture. He traveled to america in the 1830s to discover the reasons for the incredible success of this new nation. Motivated by his love of liberty and human dignity, his democracy in america has been called one of the wisest works of modern thought, that for understanding and preserving liberty, the intelligent american reader can find no better guide. A the common good is far more important than an individuals pursuit of success. He was a white french journalist and abolitionist writer. Its title translates as on democracy in america, but english translations are usually simply entitled democracy in america. His book written in two parts in 1835 and 1840 discusses the advantages of democracy and consequences of the majoritys unlimited power. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools.
He was particularly impressed by the role of freedom of association in underpinning collective action, freedom of the press in serving as a watchdog for the people, and religious freedom in sustaining the beliefs that define the american character. Democracy is defined in websters encyclopedic dictionary as. My purpose is to examine both tocqueville and bellah to illuminate the problem of democratic individualism. In the book, tocqueville examines the democratic revolution. It fights against materialism as well as the view that man is. Probably the most important one was that tocqueville thought that organized religion was the only possible longterm counterweight to some of the main threats democracy faced. Such shared beliefs were held across the various christian denominations in tocquevilles america and are even held, as c. His older brothers were named hippolyte and edouard. If a student were assigned a research paper discussing. But what happens when religion also becomes preoccupied with equality. One way in which he stood out in nineteenthcentury france was his attitude towards religion.
He had a private tutor, the abbe lesueur, until high school, and then attended high. For the purposes of discussing tocqueville, individualism could be briefly defined as a focus on individual aims and beliefs over those of the collective. Relive their historic journey at this cspan produced website. In a subsequent post, emma saundershastings asks whether american philanthropy today is democratic. T ocqueville argues, and bellah agrees, that democratization dissolves the ties or duties which link human beings to one anotherthose that constitute the. The problem of democratic individualism the russell kirk. Tension between traditional and modern values dominated tocquevilles life and writings.