Talking Politics: HISTORY OF IDEAS

Tocqueville on Democracy

Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America (1835/40) can claim to be the best book ever written about democracy and the best book ever written about America. David discusses what Tocqueville was expecting when he went to see American democracy for himself and what he actually found. Tocqueville was amazed and impressed by the American way of doing politics, but his fears about how its democracy might go wrong remain as prescient as ever. Free online version of the text: <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/815" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Volume 1</a> and <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/816" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Volume 2</a>Recommended version to purchase: <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Democracy-America-Essays-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140447601" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.co.uk/Democracy-America-Essays-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140447601</a>Going Deeper:<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09vyw0x" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">In Our Time on Tocqueville’s Democracy in America</a><a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/tocqueville-a-very-short-introduction-9780195175394?cc=gb&amp;lang=en&amp;" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr, Tocqueville: a very short introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010)</a><a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2017-12-12/americas-original-sin" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Annette Gordon Reed, ‘America’s Original Sin: Slavery and the Legacy of White Supremacy’</a><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Alexis-Tocqueville-Prophet-Democracy-Revolution/dp/1861975937" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Hugh Brogan, Alexis de Tocqueville: prophet of democracy in the age of revolution (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007).</a><a href="https://www.talkingpoliticspodcast.com/blog/2020/212-the-15th-and-the-19th" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Talking Politics American History series on the 15th and 19th amendment</a> Hosted on Acast. See <a href="https://acast.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color:grey;" target="_blank">acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.

A new series of talks by David Runciman, in which he explores some of the most important thinkers and prominent ideas lying behind modern politics – from Hobbes to Gandhi, from democracy to patriarchy, from revolution to lock down. Plus, he talks about the crises – revolutions, wars, depressions, pandemics – that generated these new ways of political thinking. From the team that brought you Talking Politics: a history of ideas to help make sense of what’s happening today. Hosted on Acast. See <a href="https://acast.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color:grey;" target="_blank">acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.