Tocqueville's Discovery of America

This video originally aired on Sunday, June 20, 2010.

About This Video

Leo Damrosch talked about his book Tocqueville's Discovery of America (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010). He followed Alexis de Tocqueville's nine-month travels throughout the United States from 1831-1832 and examined de Tocqueville's subsequent book, Democracy in America. De Tocqueville's writings on Jacksonian America presented a changing social and political landscape where the French visitor applauded much of American culture but was critical of slavery and materialism. In his book Professor Damrosch included letters and papers that had never before appeared in English. Video clips from the 1997-98 C-SPAN series on de Tocqueville's travels were shown. Leo Damrosch is the Ernest Bernbaum Professor of Literature at Harvard University.

Keywords

History, Early American History (1600-1850), Tocqueville, Constitution

Related Subjects/Topics

  • U.S. Constitution
  • U.S. History

Speakers

  • Leo Damrosch