De Tocqueville

Welch, Cheryl B.

doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198781318.001.0001

Cited by 33 publications

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“…Other “harsh penalties” were passed that pertained to those being found guilty of “laziness” and “drunkenness.” Yet, De Tocqueville was clear to suggest that none of the laws was imposed upon the people. All of the previously mentioned laws were passed by the citizens themselves who “were even more austere and puritanical.” As Welch pointed out in her book De Tocqueville , “The ability to choose and the assumption of responsibility for the future, then, are at the heart of what De Tocqueville means by freedom, which alone allows individuals to exercise moral agency” (51). It is a view of freedom that is based on limitations of the self, a view similar to descriptions of freedom found in the works of ancient political philosophers.…”

Section: Self‐restrained God Fearing and Equal: The Plymouth Bay Exmentioning

confidence: 99%

De Tocqueville's Allegorical Journey: Equality, Individualism, and the Spread of American Values

Dooley¹

2014

J of American Culture

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Section: Self‐restrained God Fearing and Equal: The Plymouth Bay Exmentioning

confidence: 99%

De Tocqueville's Allegorical Journey: Equality, Individualism, and the Spread of American Values

Dooley¹

2014

J of American Culture

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“…[T]here has been a steady stream of American scholarly material on Tocqueville, punctuated by waves of more general interest, '' Welch declared. 34 Oblivion is located in the Underworld. As Nisbet expressed it in his immensely influential article, '' Tocqueville disappeared among the shades'' ; or in Craiutu's reiteration, Tocqueville suffered '' a surprisingly long posthumous saison en enfer. ''…”

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From Oblivion to Apotheosis: The Ironic Journey of Alexis de Tocqueville

Mancini¹

2010

J. Am. Stud.

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Scholarship on the theme of Alexis de Tocqueville's changing roles in American culture constitutes a remarkably coherent discourse with distinctive conventions, structures, metaphors, and plots. Especially pronounced in the literature is a constantly repeated narrative – really a myth – that portrays Tocqueville as a vanished hero who suffered a prolonged period of oblivion and then made a celebrated return to play the role of guide to Americans as they faced the perils of the postwar world. Because of the lack of empirical support for this narrative, scholars inadvertently find themselves violating or disregarding elementary rules of evidence and logical argument when they address it. The extraordinary stability and coherence of this discourse are its most notable features: they have persisted, with no oppositional counternarrative, decade after decade for the past forty years. But all discourses have cracks and fissures. This essay reveals the ubiquity as well as the banality of the standard tragic-heroic narrative, and it provides a taxonomy of Tocqueville metaphors – Tocqueville as Orpheus, as Proteus, and as Christ. The supposed facts of Tocqueville's reception (with which these metaphoric clusters are identical) are false. There was no departure, oblivion, or triumphant return of Tocqueville. The mythic discourse advanced an account that had no support in the historical record.

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“…6 6 As Welch (2001, 53) notes, “[u]nder modern social conditions,” Tocqueville's conception of liberty involves “full‐blown and active participation in collective self‐government . .…”

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Asking of Freedom Something Other than Itself: Tocqueville, Putnam, and the Vocation of the Democratic Moralist¹

Danoff

2007

Politics & Policy

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I argue in this article that Robert Putnam's primary strategy for reviving civil society in Bowling Alone is an example of “the doctrine of self‐interest properly understood,” a doctrine that Alexis de Tocqueville found prevalent among “American moralists.” By considering him to be a modern version of the American moralist discussed by Tocqueville, new light can be shed on both the merits and the limitations of Putnam's achievement. In addition to using Tocqueville's writings to critically interpret Putnam, I also use Bowling Alone as an occasion to explore—and better understand—Tocqueville's own deep ambivalence toward the “doctrine of self‐interest properly understood.” I contrast Putnam's Bowling Alone with Robert Bellah and others' Habits of the Heart. Understanding the important differences between these two self‐proclaimed neo‐Tocquevillians can help illuminate the promise and the peril of contemporary arguments for reviving civil society that employ the language of self‐interest properly understood.

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De Tocqueville

Cited by 33 publications

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De Tocqueville's Allegorical Journey: Equality, Individualism, and the Spread of American Values

De Tocqueville's Allegorical Journey: Equality, Individualism, and the Spread of American Values

From Oblivion to Apotheosis: The Ironic Journey of Alexis de Tocqueville

Asking of Freedom Something Other than Itself: Tocqueville, Putnam, and the Vocation of the Democratic Moralist¹

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De Tocqueville

Cited by 33 publications

References 0 publications

De Tocqueville's Allegorical Journey: Equality, Individualism, and the Spread of American Values

De Tocqueville's Allegorical Journey: Equality, Individualism, and the Spread of American Values

From Oblivion to Apotheosis: The Ironic Journey of Alexis de Tocqueville

Asking of Freedom Something Other than Itself: Tocqueville, Putnam, and the Vocation of the Democratic Moralist1

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Asking of Freedom Something Other than Itself: Tocqueville, Putnam, and the Vocation of the Democratic Moralist¹