Colton Westover 10/30/12 Tocqueville Discovery Book Review

Tocquevilles Almanac, An Americans Guide to America

Leo Damroschs Evaluation Thereof
In Tocquevilles Discovery of America, Leo Damrosch delves immediately into a defining feature of his analysis of Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumonts journey through America: the social backgrounds of both gentlemen. For a well-seasoned veteran of Tocquevilles most celebrated work, Democracy in America, this aspect of Damroschs book serves as an enlightening supplementary feature to a scholar seeking insight into the Frenchmans masterpiece. For those unfamiliar with the work, it sets the stage for deeper understanding of Democracy by introducing the French author as an aristocrat just as curious about the experimental stage of the institution of American Democracy as the reader, albeit burdened with lofty naivet. From Damroschs exposition, one can glean integral knowledge about the context of Tocqueville and Beaumonts political alignments. In 1830, a shock to the government, the usurpation of the throne by Louis-Philippe I, forced the men, with painfully divided feelings, to swear allegiance to the new king lest they throw away the chance of public service. (Damrosch, 10) Tocqueville was deeply engrossed in politics prior to this upset; his parents, staunch supporters of the Ancien Rgime, nearly fell victim to the French Revolutions ubiquitous guillotine. With Bourbon sympathies and fresh memories of plebian uprisings, Tocqueville and his partner were ingrained with suspicions of Republican forms of government before they set out upon their journey. Thus, Where Tocqueville Was Coming

From, the first chapter of the book, addresses not only the societal status of his country but also his personal bureaucratic ideals. Damrosch thematically provides the reader with this encompassing view of Tocqueville; besides historical antecedent action, the exposition is rife with personal thoughts and input from Beaumont that would otherwise go unperceived in a reading of Democracy. Some of Tocqueville and Beaumonts marginal notes and private letters had never previously been translated into English, and Damrosch craftily weaves them into his book. While in New York City, the first (and last) major city of their trip, the noble duo is blithely critical of the underwhelming architecture. Tocqueville wryly informs his mother, Its a collection of little houses the size of chicken coops. (Damrosch, 15) Yet, any comments are more astute, such as Beaumonts remark that The Americans are a nation of merchants, devoured by a hunger for wealth that brings many far from honorable passions. (Damrosch, 25) The juxtaposition of trifling, descriptive remark and a weighty observation is typical of this book, as Tocqueville and Beaumont are presented as animated, dynamic characters instead of sterile, immutable edifices of historical note. A perfect illustration of this more personal approach is Damroschs mention, in nearly every stop, of the sexual stresses of Tocqueville the Libertine. Early in the book, a confession of Tocquevilles sets the stage for what may be supposed to be his favourite discovery in America, the peculiarities of American women: Violent passions pulled me out of this state of despair, and turned my gaze away from these mental ruins and towards sensory objects. (Damrosch, 5) However, Damrosch does not flippantly add extraneous information; instead, he uses it to segue into more serious discussions. During Tocquevilles Road Trip Through The South, he questions Joel Poinsett about sexual mores and concludes that the particular more of Southern degrading their chattel mistresses was bound to catch up with them, noting in one example I

saw him [an unnamed slave owner] prey to all the anguish of despair, and I understood then how nature can avenge wounds that are inflicted on her [the slave-woman] by the laws. (Damrosch, 175-176) Damrosch does not organize his account of Tocquevilles discovery around his infatuation with the ladies. Rather, Discovery centers about the very thing Damrosch follows the aristocratic dyad in the very way they experienced their own revelations, chronologically. Democracy in America is arranged categorically by themes related to division of power, sovereignty, and freedoms, but Discovery progresses in chapters beginning in New York City, to the wild Northwest, to British French-Canada, through the Eastern seaboard continuing along to Cincinnati, flowing down the Mississippi to New Orleans, and finally back to New York via the nations Capital. This difference allows readers to witness the first impressions of Tocqueville and his companion rather than simply reflect upon the polished, removed professions of the final product. For example, Tocqueville ponders in a note written only 4 days after his arrival in New York City about the notion of selfless virtue among citizenry alleged to keep government stable and responsible. Damrosch follows Tocquevilles chain of thought as he contrasts the corruption of this virtue in France by complacently parasitical nobles and the absence of it in Americans, replaced by the egoistic drive for capital gain, summed up by the question How much money will it bring in? (Damrosch, 25-26) In the Frenchmans final analysis, this esteem for the Almighty Dollar somehow creates an egalitarian society (among men), with everyone just as likely to prevail. Tocqueville postulates the entire society seems to have merged into the middle class. (Damrosch, 26) Halfway through Tocquevilles journey, while in Cincinnati, Damrosch continues to accompany him, acting as the intermediary between a perspective locked in time and the modern reader. Damrosch presents a letter home from Tocqueville while in

Americas western microcosm detailing the most profound discernment of the entire trip: the concept of democracy without limit or moderation. (Damrosch, 136) His admiration of a population absolutely without precedents, without traditions, without customs, without even prevailing ideas stems from the novel perspective of an outsider to American society. (Damrosch, 136) As Damrosch remarked, the perspective of these sympathetic outsiders is especially illuminating, and it is especially useful when inspected by a modern reader not so removed from the Ameri-centric mindset of individuality, universal suffrage, and parity in civil rights. (Damrosch, 36) Damrosch is not a blind adherent to the oft-prophetic wisdom of Tocqueville; he recognizes some of the fallacies in his evaluation. Damrosch points out two major points that hinder the Frenchman and his magnum opus: a lack of time spent in the South, and a predisposition for disregarding distinguishment between classes. Damrosch pulls an excerpt from Tocquevilles notebook where he concedes, It would be absurd to want to judge an entire people after living among them for a week or ten. (Damrosch, 166) Consequentially, Tocquevilles dissertation on Democracy in America was admittedly not as thorough as even he would have preferred. Despite its critical acclaim, Damrosch maintains that this shallowness on the part of Tocqueville in investigating the mores of the South and the planter aristocracy may well have altered his critique. The impact of a more direct interaction with slavery, and the overt inequality between large plantation owners and more humble yeoman farmers would have shook the foundations of Tocquevilles perception of America as a homogenous middle class. This incomplete survey of the social strata is only exacerbated, Damrosch claims, by the fact that one phenomenon [Tocqueville] largely neglected was social class. (Damrosch, 205) Despite Tocquevilles pension of objectivity, he was doomed to have it marred because he remained

attached to aristocratic values, and inherently feared the wielding of power by the people. (Damrosch, 204) Leo Damrosch had an immense task in front of him, chronicling the entirety of a journey so significant that it altered the worlds understanding of Americas experiment in republicanism. Democracy in America is so revered in historical circles for its consummate portrayal of the institution, it is said it cannot go without being mentioned in any accounting of early American history, yet Damrosch manages to dissect the magnitude of the volumes and pare them down into their principal elements: simple observations by two French bureaucrats looking to elude political persecution in their homeland. It is commendable that Damrosch so handily conveyed the profundities of the pair in the context of a mere 9-month trip. By investigating the origins and formulations of said eruditions, Damrosch offers a unique assessment of an alienauthored national epic.