January
16
Google Docs – ch 9 and 10
2nd Hour – https://docs.google.com/document/d/14kNZa4xOfaHdF_g3BPUbq2w7njLQtMRGBAmaSQ1CY2Q/edit?usp=sharing
3rd Hour – https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_vRKAh6dHpXNzHxKwlJnxFIWyDGit_EVYS1RDCpFdZs/edit?usp=sharing
5th Hour – https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QKQQFGowze7R0dPcDyJRSaw8u-ddyX3iXH6jH0JQTQI/edit?usp=sharing
Due Sunday night, Jan. 21 by 10pm.
Google Docs: Ch 9-10
French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville wrote a classic study of American life called “Democracy in America” in the 1830’s. During this time period in the United States, the increase in size of the electorate and the emergence of political parties were two very important occurrences of the 19th century. The spirit of the right to vote spread, and began to represent freedom and democracy. This is what attracted Tocqueville. At first, he was only going to compose a study of American prisons, but he ended up writing “Democracy in America,” which went far beyond prisons and into the realm of Americans themselves, looking into their culture, associations, and visions of democracy. Though impressed by the replacement of aristocracies by elites that could rise and fall regardless of their background, he did notice the unpleasant, more subtle issue of segregation.
When looking into this, Tocqueville noted that even though African-Americans and Native Americans were of two separate racial groups, both types of people were restricted from the full benefits of the democratic freedoms so often celebrated and embraced by white men: “These two unfortunate races have neither birth, nor face, nor language, nor mores in common; only their misfortunes look alike. Both occupy an equally inferior position in the country that they inhabit; both experience the effect of tyranny, and if their miseries are different, they can accuse the same author for them.”
(Tocqueville)