The Making of Tocqueville's America

Law and Association in the Early United States

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Political Science, Politics, History & Theory, History, Americas, United States, 19th Century
Cover of the book The Making of Tocqueville's America by Kevin Butterfield, University of Chicago Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Kevin Butterfield ISBN: 9780226297118
Publisher: University of Chicago Press Publication: November 19, 2015
Imprint: University of Chicago Press Language: English
Author: Kevin Butterfield
ISBN: 9780226297118
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication: November 19, 2015
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Language: English

Alexis de Tocqueville was among the first to draw attention to Americans’ propensity to form voluntary associations—and to join them with a fervor and frequency unmatched anywhere in the world. For nearly two centuries, we have sought to understand how and why early nineteenth-century Americans were, in Tocqueville’s words, “forever forming associations.” In The Making of Tocqueville’s America, Kevin Butterfield argues that to understand this, we need to first ask: what did membership really mean to the growing number of affiliated Americans?

Butterfield explains that the first generations of American citizens found in the concept of membership—in churches, fraternities, reform societies, labor unions, and private business corporations—a mechanism to balance the tension between collective action and personal autonomy, something they accomplished by emphasizing law and procedural fairness. As this post-Revolutionary procedural culture developed, so too did the legal substructure of American civil society. Tocqueville, then, was wrong to see associations as the training ground for democracy, where people learned to honor one another’s voices and perspectives. Rather, they were the training ground for something no less valuable to the success of the American democratic experiment: increasingly formal and legalistic relations among people.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Alexis de Tocqueville was among the first to draw attention to Americans’ propensity to form voluntary associations—and to join them with a fervor and frequency unmatched anywhere in the world. For nearly two centuries, we have sought to understand how and why early nineteenth-century Americans were, in Tocqueville’s words, “forever forming associations.” In The Making of Tocqueville’s America, Kevin Butterfield argues that to understand this, we need to first ask: what did membership really mean to the growing number of affiliated Americans?

Butterfield explains that the first generations of American citizens found in the concept of membership—in churches, fraternities, reform societies, labor unions, and private business corporations—a mechanism to balance the tension between collective action and personal autonomy, something they accomplished by emphasizing law and procedural fairness. As this post-Revolutionary procedural culture developed, so too did the legal substructure of American civil society. Tocqueville, then, was wrong to see associations as the training ground for democracy, where people learned to honor one another’s voices and perspectives. Rather, they were the training ground for something no less valuable to the success of the American democratic experiment: increasingly formal and legalistic relations among people.

More books from University of Chicago Press

Cover of the book Rome Measured and Imagined by Kevin Butterfield
Cover of the book Words, Works, and Ways of Knowing by Kevin Butterfield
Cover of the book Beyond the Map by Kevin Butterfield
Cover of the book Eating the Enlightenment by Kevin Butterfield
Cover of the book The Pre-Raphaelites and Their Circle by Kevin Butterfield
Cover of the book The Culinarians by Kevin Butterfield
Cover of the book Nature's Fabric by Kevin Butterfield
Cover of the book The Romantic Machine by Kevin Butterfield
Cover of the book Loving Little Egypt by Kevin Butterfield
Cover of the book Walden Warming by Kevin Butterfield
Cover of the book Elizabeth I by Kevin Butterfield
Cover of the book Clashing over Commerce by Kevin Butterfield
Cover of the book Riotous Flesh by Kevin Butterfield
Cover of the book Truth and Beauty by Kevin Butterfield
Cover of the book Darwin's Orchids by Kevin Butterfield
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy