
A Macat Analysis of Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America
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Narrated by:
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Macat.com
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By:
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Elizabeth Morrow
About this listen
A Macat analysis of Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America.
London: Penguin Group, 2003
Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, published in two volumes in 1835 and 1840, challenged conventional thinking about democracy when it appeared - and is still cited by leading politicians today.
Having witnessed some negative effects of democratic revolutions in his native France, Tocqueville visited America in 1831 to see what a functioning republic looked like. His main concerns were that democracy could make people too dependent on the state and that minority voices might not be heard - a problem he termed "the Tyranny of the Majority". By examining America thoroughly, Tocqueville hoped to show how a democratic system could avoid these pitfalls.
Tocqueville also made a number of accurate predictions about the future of the United States, anticipating that the debate over abolishing slavery would cause conflict and that the US and Russia would emerge as the world's two great powers.
The New York Times decided: "No better study of a nation's institutions and culture than Tocqueville's Democracy in America has ever been written by a foreign observer."
You can find out more about how Tocqueville's ideas have been challenged and applied - and how his work has impacted thinkers in other academic disciplines - by exploring further in the Macat Library.
Macat's analyses cover 14 different subjects in the humanities and social sciences.
Macat. Learn better. Think smarter. Aim higher.
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On the Genealogy of Morality was written in 1887 when Friedrich Nietzsche was at the height of his powers as a philosopher and master of German prose writing. Here, he criticizes the idea that there is just one conception of moral goodness, dissecting the contemporary practice of morality and looking at it from a historical viewpoint. Rather than following a metaphysical or religious approach, Nietzsche adopts a naturalistic framework, which is grounded in history and natural science, to understand our concepts of good and evil in the Christianized Western world.
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What might society look like if we were brave enough to emerge fully from the shadow of the Christian God? The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche explores this intriguing question in his 1886 work, Beyond Good and Evil. Going further, Nietzsche then asks of his "philosophers of the future" that they take on the challenge of supplying humanity with new ideals to live by.
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Analysis: A Macat Analysis of Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan
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Overall
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What listeners say about A Macat Analysis of Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America
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- Jordan Stehlik
- 09-28-21
Nuanced Nuisance
The Narrator is absolutely horrible. Tocqueville’s political concepts and ideas are summarized and read by what sounds like the most sarcastic kindergarten teacher ever. The narrator stumbles through complex and profound political questions with what seems to be wry rhetorical inflections and winking condescension. Half way through I began to wonder she was actually mocking the listener for having an interest in the subject matter.
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- Trebla
- 10-14-19
I want my time back
Way too many words for the information actually transmitted. Simplistic, repetitive. The message of the entire book could have been stated on maybe two note cards. Small ones.
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