Cambridge University Press America after Tocqueville: Democracy against Difference

America after Tocqueville complements Harvey Mitchell's previous book, Individual Choice and the Structures of History: Alexis de Tocqueville as Historian Reappraised (1996). This study draws on Democracy in America to study the condition of democracy in the United States in our own time. Three aspects of Americanism inform Harvey Mitchell's book, and cannot be separated from Tocqueville's consideration of the three races. First, he addresses tensions in the United States between ideas of equality and a political system that tries to keep it within bounds. He turns to the relationship between this system and the dynamics of American capitalism. and he analyses the criteria for inclusion and exclusion in American life. Overall, he asks if Americans have surrendered to what Tocqueville called the materialization of life; if that compromise means their abandonment of their original spiritual quest; and, if they are on the way to a radical alienation from politics. Review 'In this stimulating book Professor Mitchell takes as his starting point Tocqueville's view that American society combined democracy and modernity and his concern that of the three races that made up the U.S. in the 1830s - white, coloured and Indian - the latter two would not fit into his prediction for America's democratic future.' Contemporary Review'The study is … the product of a mature and wide-ranging mind …' History of Political Thought Book Description Mitchell's study uses Tocqueville's Democracy in America to address current tensions in American democracy.