The 19th-century road trip that changed America: Books attain classic status by illuminating the universal in the particular, and by remaining perennially relevant. Tocqueville's "Democracy in America" is a classic in just this way. Tocqueville himself naturally hoped his book would be such a thing, but did not fully expect it; he was surprised by how quickly and widely successful it became. His aim had been to learn constitutional lessons from the American example, and to apply them to France and the rest of the Old World where, with equivocal feelings, he saw the spread of democracy as inevitable. When the book was published he found that he had done far more: He had added to the central literature of political science.
This was one of the deepest of the insights he brought home from the journey Damrosch describes. "Above them," Tocqueville writes of the citizens of a democracy that has mutated into a soft despotism, "rises an immense tutelary power that alone takes charge of ensuring their pleasures and watching over their fate -- it is absolute, detailed, regular, far-sighted, and mild. It would resemble paternal power if its object was to prepare men for adult life, but it seeks on the contrary to keep them in permanent childhood. It likes citizens to enjoy themselves, so long as all they think about is enjoyment. It labors willingly for their happiness, but it wants to be the sole agent of their happiness. The sovereign power doesn't break their wills, but it softens, bends, and directs them. It rarely compels action, but it constantly opposes action."
This is pure genius.
Salon - http://www.salon.com/rss/all_salon.rss