Tocqueville Revisted
Tom Allen (HI500010@brownvm.brown.edu)
Sun, 31 Mar 96 20:15:37 EST
Tocqueville was not the only one to notice the unique character of early Americ
an society. Many other visitors to America were astounded by the energy of the
nation's farmers and artisans, and by their seemingly single-minded pursuit of
wealth. Like Tocqueville, foreign and native commentators assumed that this e
nergy and acquisitiveness were of recent vintage, and that they were associated
with the development of democratic ideology.
It is difficult to assess whether the former is true. Certainly Americ
an society changed a great deal after 1800, and in ways disapproved by even so
dedicated a republican as Thomas Jefferson. It remains to be seen, though, whe
ther these changes were unique to the nineteenth century, or whether they were
part of a much longer, older trend.
As for the influence of democracy, it is noteworthy that the great incr
ease in agricultural production in this country began before any real improveme
nt in technology. Economic historians would have us believe that this increasd
production was the result increased access to markets, but Tocqueville et al pr
obably had a better handle on the motivation behind this increase in production
. Lacking any improvement in technology, such an increase would have required
a greater input of labor, and hence a significant change in traditional work pr
actices on the farm. It is significant that it is right about this time that o
ne can also see the development of a quantitative, rather than qualitative atti
tude toward time.
None of this need necessarily point to democratic ideology as a motivat
ive force, but it seems the most plausible explanation. As one contemporary wr
ote, it was not a love of money that motivated a miser, but the desire to be kn
own as a wealthy man. The same may be said of the motivation to work harder on
the farm, or to move west where wealth was apparently so easy to obtain. Stat
us, preferably earned status, was the be all and end all of early nineteenth-ce
tury society, and most Americans in this period saw wealth as the key to status
.
Most of those who wrote on the topic in the early nineteenth century we
re deeply concerned about the course American society seemed to be taking. Eve
n the relatively sympathetic Tocqueville mistrusted democracy, and had reservat
ions about the sort of society produced by individuals' relentless pursuit of w
ealth and status. I suppose that the questions that we need to ask now is whet
her these concerns were justified, and whether much has changed in the last one
hundred and fifty odd years. Have farmers changed their attitudes, or are the
y still much as Tocqueville and others described them in the 1820's and 30's?
I am inclined to believe that they are, but that there is some evidence of chan
ge in the last ten or twenty years, largely as a result of the decline of agric
ultural incomes and the deterioration of the rural standard of living. I hope
that attitudes are changing as I cannot imagine the widespread conversion to
sustainable agriculture without a major change in motivation among farmers.
Well, sorry for the lecture, but Tocquville is a particular favorite of
mine, and I couldn't resist the temptation. T. Allen