More than a century and a half ago, a young French jurist by the name of Alexis de Tocqueville came to America to study the future of the civilized world. With rare prescience, Tocqueville realized that America's revolutionary ideas were destined to dominate Western culture. He wanted his own countrymen to imitate our virtues and avoid the dangerous elements of American character that, in his view, opened the door to tyranny. His great masterpiece,
Democracy in America
, has remained the most brilliant and the most widely read book ever written about the United States.
In Tocqueville on American Character (St. Martin's Press, July 2000), Michael A. Ledeen concludes that our national character has not changed since the Frenchman's grand tour of the United States. Echoing Tocqueville, Ledeen writes that our tensions and contradictions are the source of our unparalleled energy and the engine of our amazing economic and scientific creativity. He concludes that the American character is a tour de force, a breathtaking balancing act, and that this delicate sense of balance--if lost--may create a new form of tyranny. Joining Ledeen to discuss the American character will be Michael Barone and William Galston.
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