Honor in America? : Tocqueville on American Enlightenment

This book analyzes Tocqueville’s views on religion, family and gender roles, politics, relations with Native Americans, white southerners and slavery, and the military. It explores how these views can help form a uniquely American honor code, one that re-envisions aristocratic elements of honor within a modern democratic and capitalist society.

Is there such a thing as American honor, or is honor simply incompatible with modern liberal democracy and capitalism? Tocqueville’s Democracy in America is particularly well suited as a means of exploring these questions. Through an in-depth analysis of Tocqueville’s views on aristocratic versus American democratic honor, this book explores what honor might mean in the modern Western context. Its aim is to strengthen citizens’ moral obligations and understandings of community in the face of forces within democracy and capitalism that naturally erode these binding and stabilizing influences. With a focus on discovering a uniquely American honor, this book covers Tocqueville’s views on American religion, family and gender roles, politics, relations with Native Americans, white southerners and slavery, and the military. It explores how these views can help us form a uniquely American honor code, one that re-envisions and incorporates suitable aristocratic elements within a modern democratic society and a capitalistic economy.