This work is under copyright — a short fair-use excerpt is shown. Buy · Borrow.
Produced by David Reed and David Widger DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA By Alexis De Tocqueville Translated by Henry Reeve Book Two: Influence Of Democracy On Progress Of Opinion In the United States. De Tocqueville's Preface To The Second Part The Americans live in a democratic state of society, which has naturally suggested to them certain laws and a certain political character. This same state of society has, moreover, engendered amongst them a multitude of feelings and opinions which were unknown amongst the elder aristocratic communities of Europe: it has destroyed or modified all the relations which before existed, and established others of a novel kind. The--aspect of civil society has been no less affected by these changes than that of the…