The United States of America was barely 60 years old when French political scientist Alexis de Tocqueville published the final volume of Democracy in America in 1840. At over 700 pages long, you might wonder how de Tocqueville could find so much to say about such a young country…and whether any of it was worth reading at the time, much less 184 years later in 2024.

I had the same thought once. What insights could a young 19th-century Frenchman have about a fledging nation an ocean away? The answer proved surprising.

Of all the non-fiction works, particularly non-history books, that I read in high school and earlier, I still remember Democracy in America remarkably clearly. It was a slog to get through at times, yes, but many of its insights grow more relevant with each passing year.

When I read this work, I had only recently begun compiling a list of quotes from books I read, some funny and most insightful to one degree or another. To this day, de Tocqueville remains the most-quoted author on my list, with six quotes totaling 396 words (for comparison, most authors that make my list have only one or two quotes, usually short and rarely from the same book).

“It is imprudent indeed for man to want to limit the possible and judge the future — he whom the real and present elude every day and who constantly finds himself unexpectedly surprised in the things that he knows best” (150).

— Alexis de Tocqueville

While at times de Tocqueville’s perspective on the United States seems a little rosy-tinted—perhaps in contrast to the turbulent politics of France at the time—, he does include many almost prophetic observations of the U.S. that since proved true. I remember being struck by his predictions regarding the end of slavery in America, as well as his thoughts on socialism and the dangers of a government attempting to support its citizens financially. Democracy in America ranges beyond mere political science to economics and social issues.

On the Fourth of July, popular imagination, when it contemplates history at all, likes to focus on images of rifle-toting, tea-dumping rebels and fiery freedom-fighter founding fathers. What few people realize is what the successful establishment of the U.S. really took, including centuries of political thought, principled leaders, and a number of years of bumps and bruises as those same leaders figured things out.

De Tocqueville helps show us the difference these factors made, particularly in contrast to his own country’s experience. Better than most, he understood what could have happened instead. If our revolution had really been just the fiery rebels we like to picture, it might have turned into the bloodbath and decades of turmoil France saw after their revolution. Instead, de Tocqueville explains, “The revolution in the United States was produced by a mature and reflective taste for freedom, and not by a vague and indefinite instinct of independence. It was not supported by passions of disorder; but, on the contrary, it advanced with a love of order and of legality” (67).

This book is not for the faint-of-heart reader, but as we celebrate another anniversary of the U.S.’s nationhood, I think Democracy in America is a valuable reminder of what true liberty means and the sacrifices and principles necessary to establish and keep it.

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Works Cited

De Tocqueville, Alexis. Democracy in America. University of Chicago Press, 2002.