The Greatest Book Ever Written About Democracy in America

Toqueville thought it would be interesting to compare European and American attitudes to crime and punishment but he soon thought there was a much bigger story to be told. His first impressions were all of the chaos, the noise, the bustle, the boosterism,. People exaggerating, people telling tales. So it looked like a society that was slightly out of control. But as he saw more of America including what you might call back then different heartland from now but the heartland of 1830s America, he came to a different conclusion. In parts America was quite a conformist society, quite staid, quite settled. Its idea of equality which in some dimensions produced this volatility also produced