Democracy in America

Literature is another area where Americans draw heavily from Europe and especially England: Tocqueville recalls, with a note of incredulity, that he first read Shakespeare’s Henry V “in a log-house” (445). Unlike the literature of aristocracies, the literature of a democracy will reflect the fact that authors cannot solely devote themselves to art. Literature is another area where democratic pragmatism will dominate: “Having only a very short time to give to letters, they want to put it wholly to profit. They like books that are procured without trouble, that are quickly read, that do not require learned research to be understood” (448). Tocqueville, then, considers that democratic literature will overall have less artistic quality even as he acknowledges that it will be appropriate to its context.

He further notes that this transition will be a long process, and there will also be junctures when “the literary genius of democratic nations meets that of aristocracies” and great art will emerge from this convergence (448). Overall, however, Tocqueville’s distaste for majority rule extends to literature: He notes that the desire to please the crowd will dominate the publishing industry, to its detriment. In essence, the drive to meet public taste will produce many writers but few examples of genuine literary talent.

Tocqueville’s elitism in literary matters extends to his attitude about classical education. He notes that “[t]here is no literature that puts the qualities naturally lacking in the writers of democracies more in relief than that of the ancients” (451), though he also considers Greek and Rome essentially aristocratic societies, since their forms of popular participation were limited mostly to elites. He further asserts that classical education is inappropriate for most democratic citizens, as they are destined for commercial careers.