Read-a-Thon: 2:00 p.m. (Update #2)

The introduction to Alex de Tocqueville's Democracy in America was a breath of fresh air after the convoluted Renaissance English of Thomas Nashe.

According to Tocqueville, all of Western history has been progressing steadily towards greater social and political equality. Once that spark was ignited, all advances in the arts, literature, science, and politics have further impelled its momentum. It is the great wave of history, frightening in its force and unpredictability. Though disheartened by what he perceives to be intellectual confusion around him in Europe, as no one seems to know what to make of democracy's ongoing march, Tocqueville trusts God's plan and is assured of its outcome. He foresees a society with less drama but with more contentment. Less highs and lows and more happy mediums. But for now, Europe is in painful flux and everything is up in the air. "Positioned as we are in the middle of a rapid stream, we stare fixedly at a few ruins we can still see on the shore as the current drags us away backwards to the abyss." A new age, he concludes, desperately needs "a new political science," since the old ways of thought no longer fit.

Tocqueville does not want to praise the new United States as the perfect society or perfect government. The purpose of Democracy in America is to explore how American democracy functions, its cultural effects, and what Europeans can learn from it.