Essay 88: Why The National Vanity Of The Americans Is More Restless And Quarrelsome Than That Of English (Vol. 2 Pt. 3 Ch. 16)
Essay Read by Constituting America Founder, Actress Janine Turner
The essays in our study reference the following edition of Democracy In America: University of Chicago Press – 1st edition translated by Harvey Mansfield and Delba Winthrop. Today’s essay references pages 585 – 587 (stop at chapter 17 heading) of this edition of Democracy in America.
Alexis De Tocqueville’s mission to North America was to study the new case of American democracy. De Tocqueville analyzed the living standards and conditions of individuals with particular attention to their relationship to the new political state. In volume 2, part 3, chapter 16, De Tocqueville examined how an individual sense of pride, fashioned by the absence of a heredity-based aristocracy, formulated a new collective identity. Fundamentally, De Tocqueville observed that the Americans’ intense love for country is restless because it has a tendency to be forward, public, out loud, and indefatigable, which some international observers and allies find to be exhausting. While De Tocqueville’s observations might be interpreted as a criticism toward American hubris, he also explains why it reflects the exceptional nature of the American experience.
De Tocqueville’s analysis of a new American, yet restless, national identity contributes to the notion of American Exceptionalism. The idea asserts that the American experience is an exceptional one and that the American institutions and practices are distinctive, and in this case, are distinctive from England. What is purportedly unique about the American experience can be traced to its political and ideological origins. Very few nations have simultaneously invented themselves both politically (physical territory, borders, and institutions) and conceptually in the manner that the United States did. Furthermore, the exceptional American experience is also attached to notions of “newness” meaning the novel aspects of the lived experiences in the new America.
When deconstructing the layers of American national identity as an exceptional experience, De Tocqueville identifies a significant reason for distinctions between the Americans and their ancestral England. De Tocqueville identifies how the absence of an American aristocracy empowers a unique, individualistic national pride. De Tocqueville writes that people who live in democracies “love their country in the same manner that they love themselves”. According to De Tocqueville, the significance of democracies is that they cultivate fluid conditions (unlike the conditions of heredity in England) by which ambitious and motivated people are enabled to achieve and acquire their own “advantages.” Here, such advantages can be considered any object (or institution) which offers protection of freedoms and the private ownership of property. An exceptional experience for Americans is that they are empowered to earn their own advantages, property, and achievements through their own labor instead of through heredity. De Tocqueville details that Americans are equally conscious of the fragile status of their achieved advantages, which makes the new American more restless about losing their achievements. Americans are keenly aware of their fluid stations and that they can lose their lives, liberty, freedoms, and properties just as quickly as they secured them. As De Tocqueville writes, “and as it can happen at any instance that these advantages may escape them, they are in constant alarm and strive to make one see that they still have them.” While the absence of heredity makes for remarkable opportunities in the new American society, it also contributes to the individualistic and boastful nature of its national vanity. De Tocqueville is familiar England’s aristocracy as France’s elites also functioned within an established system inherited privilege and protection as well and where national identity is not as boastful because, to De Tocqueville, heredity is a mechanism that perpetuates the stability of goods and privileges for the aristocracy. Without the replication of such a system in America, individuals felt mostly free to earn and boast of their statuses.
De Tocqueville’s observations of Americans are that they are individually eager and ambitious while soliciting praises from outside observers about their American experience. De Tocqueville emphasizes that while seeking praise, Americans are also seeking validation for their political experiment. When compared to their English counterparts, De Tocqueville observes that English pride tends to be a solitary enjoyment of advantages (perceived or real), they do not solicit praise nor are they motivated to critique other nations. Unlike Americans, the English possess a reserved, stoic disposition. However, there is an embedded critique, since de Docqueville accounts for the role that economic class and a sense of social superiority has played in the development of English national identity. De Tocqueville reminds his readers that when England’s aristocracy conducts public affairs—all other classes imitate it. In England, the aristocracy assume they are significant and entitled to visibility, which perpetuates their advantage. Whereas, in America, when the least advantaged gain importance, while pride may become demanding and indefatigable, it is not invalid. De Tocqueville has also observed elsewhere that the advantages and privileges earned by Americans are revered as being earned through individual and collective sacrifice that’s given rise to America’s notable and exemplary civic culture.
Dr. Heather E. Yates is a professor of American politics at the University of Central Arkansas. She has published books and articles on regional and national politics with emphasis on the American presidency, political campaigns, and voting behavior. Her political analysis has been featured in national and regional print and broadcast media. She also speaks to community forums and events about the significance of electoral politics and civic engagement.
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Hello! I’m Janine Turner, founder of Constituting America!
“Practices are distinctive, and in this case, are distinctive from England. What is purportedly unique about the American experience can be traced to its political and ideological origins. Very few nations have simultaneously invented themselves both politically (physical territory, borders, and institutions) and conceptually in the manner that the United States did. Furthermore, the exceptional American experience is also attached to notions of “newness” meaning the novel aspects of the lived experiences in the new America.
When deconstructing the layers of American national identity as an exceptional experience, De Tocqueville identifies a significant reason for distinctions between the Americans and their ancestral England. De Tocqueville identifies how the absence of an American aristocracy empowers a unique, individualistic national pride. De Tocqueville writes that people who live in democracies “love their country in the same manner that they love themselves”. According to De Tocqueville, the significance of democracies is that they cultivate fluid conditions (unlike the conditions of heredity in England) by which ambitious and motivated people are enabled to achieve and acquire their own “advantages.”
This is a good example of American exceptionalism… what are your thoughts?