Rating: 
Summary: A Lofty Achievement - only Straussians take texts seriously
Review: If one is not able to read Tocqueville in the original, he should rely on a translation which takes Tocqueville as seriously as Tocqueville undertook his own project. Such a classic text -- and to avoid the cheapened understanding which the word "classic" in its overuse conveys (I have in mind as "classic" Plato's Dialogues) -- was composed with an almost unbelievable amount of care. We should expect a comparable effort of any translator. Such translating makes greater demands on the reader, to be sure, but it forces him to come to grips with the author's original teaching. It should be mentioned that the idea of seeking to know what the author "originally intended" is one totally lost to our postmodern friends -- witness the unfavorable review of Mansfield's achievement in The New York Times -- who are still stuck in a historicist quagmire. The implicit assumption in the Times review is that every age will produce its own Tocqueville, a child of its times. With George W. in the White House and Republicans controlling congress..... you get the picture -- ergo "A Tocqueville the Neocons can like." Such a belief can only emanate from those who think themselves superior to the text.
Rating:
Summary: Democracy Revisted
Review: In a time where people believe the level of politics and government has reached an astronomic and dismally irreversable low, DeToquevilles book proves more true than the day it was written. It takes a critical look at our system and culture from an outside perspective not in a sunshiney or dark and dreary light, but an honest perspective which still shows the path to improving our government of the people.
Rating:
Summary: A whole course on political science
Review: It has been said that this is the best book about the US and the best book about democracy. Having just read it, I can say it is even more. Tocqueville reflects not only on the US or on democracy, but his comparative approach sheds light on the Europe of his times and before, on the nature of aristocracy and the inevitable democratic revolution which was on its way across the civilized world. Tocqueville was a realistic aristocrat, sometimes nostalgic for the "greatness" of yesterday, but bearing no illusions whatsoever about the feasibility of stopping democratic change. So, he sets to find out what is it about democracy that can work, and what its inherent risks are. And he decides to tour the grandest democratic experiment ever attempted by Man: the United States. What Tocqueville finds is a unique nation. Unlike most other nascent states in history, the English who moved to America found a huge land, practically devoid of people (and in those cases where it was inhabited, they were easily killed), where everybody could be a landowner. This, plus the particular ethics of the Puritans, the glorifiaction of hard work, thrift and virtuosity, provided for a prosperous, practical people (not necessarily tolerant, especially in religious affairs). Far away from kings and emperors, Americans developed a communal democracy. So far so good, Tocquevill really admires the basic qualities of the US. But this book is not a long eulogy of democracy. Tocqueville admits democracy is the best way to govern a modern society, but that does not mean he thinks it's perfect or endlessly beneficial. Democracy DOES poses risks: among others, the tyranny of the majority, the mediocrity towards which it impels mores; the loneliness of the individual, lost amidst an endless, faceless crowd. Even for some minor mistaken attempts at prophecy, Tocqueville's prescience adn long-term vision is simply astonishing. He was right about the merits of democracy; he was right about its shortcomings. If he would come to the present-day US, he would probably find much to celebrate (prosperity, technological progress, widespread access to education, health, etc), and much to deplore, precisely the mediocrity of democratic tastes (think music, literature, cinema, art. etc). Tocqueville's culture and knowledge are impressive, even more so considering how young he was when he travelled in the US. His style is conversational and straightforward, assertive but modest. The reader will find here a whole lot of wisdom and subjects to think about and it is simply one of the best books on politics and society ever written, one that is relevant todat as it was many years ago.
Rating:
Summary: An aristocrat in democratic clothing
Review: M. De Tocqueville was an aristocrat. Are we all agreed? "He was born a French aristocrat and lived as one;" p.xix He came to observe and report democracy in America, NOT to unqualifiedly praise it (My apologies to Marc Antony). Indeed, "There is nothing more annoying than this irritable patriotism of the Americans." (p.227) that does not permit a foreigner to find fault with them. So he says.-This is indeed a great book and a great (i.e., faithful) translation. - By the way, why all this lather over the translation and the NYT review? To heck with the NYT, even Gore Vidal (on a recent C-Span Booknotes) has recently called it a "bad paper" in its pomposity and Procrustean brand of liberalism. Harper's magazine also recently published a long article in re its suppressive tactics toward independent writers.-They do have good crossword puzzles though, particularly on Saturday.-To the matter at hand, De Tocqueville is simply accepting what he believes to be inevitable (democratic rule) and comparing and contrasting it with the aristocratic state and its mores to which he is accustomed. I'm always baffled when I hear liberal or conservative voices citing this book in defense of their cause, because it seems clear to me that, though M. De Tocqueville finds much to praise in America, the underlying tone and theme is one of regret and nostalgia for a lost world of aristocratic mores.-I'm always reminded on these occasions of Ross Perot's trumpeting that Thoreau's "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." was the sentence that changed his life, only later to admit that he culled it from the Quotable Quotes section in Reader's Digest while sitting in a barber's chair rather than from an intensive study of Walden.-It seems to me that anyone who reads this translation or any other (unabridged) translation or the book in the original French cannot help but come away with this subterranean sense of nostalgia and regret. To put his viewpoint in nutshell, he finds the inhabitants of democracy pusillanimous, small-souled, eager to get on with making a living and little else. Almost all of the praise that flows from his pen for Americans is for some form of this "virile" practicality of the Americans, at which they excel. It doesn't appear to have occurred to most American readers of this book that this might be a rather backhanded compliment coming from an aristocrat. Does not the reader take note of quotes such as "One can conceive of nothing so small, so dull, so filled with miserable interests, in a word, so antipoetic, as the life of a man in the United States."p.461 Or, "In aristocratic times one generally gets used to very vast ideas of the dignity, power, and greatness of man...they facilitate the natural spark of the mind toward the highest regions of thought and naturally dispose it to conceive a sublime and almost divine love of truth." p.436 I could go on with quote following quote, but (of course) my space is limited here. To conclude, what makes this work great is the poignancy and pathos of the observations of a man, a little lost, from a world that has crumbled. One is reminded of Lott's wife somehow, looking back on what must have been a grand, if debauched, city as she headed into the wilderness. What does he see? On almost the last page of the proper text (p. 674), he sighs, "The spectacle of this universal conformity saddens and chills me, and I am tempted to regret the society that is no longer." He doesn't turn into a pillar of salt, but one is not thrown off by the "tempted" equivocation. More has been lost than gained.
Rating: 
Summary: Better translations available
Review: My two-star evaluation applies to the translation, which I found difficult to read, at times even incomprehensible. The goal in this edition is a literal "scholarly" translation. But those who really wish to weigh Tocqueville's exact choice of words will probably want to read the book in the original French. The introduction is very good. Tocqueville himself is still well worth reading today, although many of the early chapters can be skimmed. It is justifiably considered a classic.
Rating:
Summary: Better translations available
Review: My two-star evaluation applies to the translation, which I found difficult to read, at times even incomprehensible. The goal in this edition is a literal "scholarly" translation. But those who really wish to weigh Tocqueville's exact choice of words will probably want to read the book in the original French. The introduction is very good. Tocqueville himself is still well worth reading today, although many of the early chapters can be skimmed. It is justifiably considered a classic.
Rating: 
Summary: Old Classic
Review: No doubt this is a classic text, but the unqualified praise heaped on Tocqueville's insights needs to be tempered at least somewhat by the fact that they are based on a nine month visit over a hundred and seventy years ago! America--and the world--have changed over that interval. Those who wish to refashion the country on these old ideals are dreaming of a bygone world! (And we can say good riddance: as some of Tocqueville's more racist comments--especially about Native Americans--ought to suggest.)
But it is a classic in the HISTORY of political thought, and is well worth reading. The newer translation by Goldhammer in the "Library of America" series is far more elegant, however, and his annotations and comments are both more helpful and less idiosyncratic.
Rating:
Summary: One those books that must be read..............
Review: Push yourself through the first couple of chapters where de Tocqueville discusses the formation of townships and counties and then find yourself in the lap of an oracle as he confidently and correctly identifies the stengths and weaknesses of America's democratic future. This book, written in 1832, resulted from de Tocqueville's tour of America and his wizardry of forecasting America's political milieu for generations to come is astonishing. Observing our fledgling political process, he extrapolates in detail what you and I live today as he extrapolated what our ancestors have lived before us. One cannot consider themselves an informed observer of American politics without recourse to this masterpiece. A must read for everyone in search of socio-political erudition.
Rating:
Summary: Keep Aware
Review: The reader must constantly keep in mind that AT is writing and appealing primarily to French readers and readers in France who are accustomed to different mentalities than the Americans. This is why AT's Democracy in America is, at times, difficult to understand and appreciate for an American reader who is accustomed especially to democracy and nothing else. AT's writing is concise and at times too incisive and oversimplified for the reader who is not of the times and not French. I believe a French reader is more inclined to appreciate DIA than those whose tastes of political society have not been extended outside the sphere of American democracy.
Rating:
Summary: Keep Aware
Review: The reader must constantly keep in mind that AT is writing and appealing primarily to French readers and readers in France who are accustomed to different mentalities than the Americans. This is why AT's Democracy in America is, at times, difficult to understand and appreciate for an American reader who is accustomed especially to democracy and nothing else. AT's writing is concise and at times too incisive and oversimplified for the reader who is not of the times and not French. I believe a French reader is more inclined to appreciate DIA than those whose tastes of political society have not been extended outside the sphere of American democracy.
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