Democracy In America
Alexis De Tocqueville
Translator - Henry Reeve
Book Two
Influence Of Democracy On Progress Of Opinion In US
De Tocqueville's Preface To The Second Part
The Americans live in a democratic state of society, which
has naturally suggested to them certain laws and a certain
political character. This same state of society has, moreover,
engendered amongst them a multitude of feelings and opinions
which were unknown amongst the elder aristocratic communities of
Europe: it has destroyed or modified all the relations which
before existed, and established others of a novel kind. The
aspect of civil society has been no less affected by these
changes than that of the political world. The former subject has
been treated of in the work on the Democracy of America, which I
published five years ago; to examine the latter is the object of
the present book; but these two parts complete each other, and
form one and the same work.
I must at once warn the reader against an error which would
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