A Frenchman visits the U.S. (4 cents)

Alexis de Tocqueville traveled through the United States in 1831. He came ostensibly to examine American prisons, but it was really just an excuse to examine America and American democracy. After all, the American revolution seemed to be a political success; the French revolution was not.

In 2004, the Atlantic Magazine paid French philosophe Bernard Henri Levy to travel the United States. Sort of (but not exactly) a twenty first century de Tocqueville. Levy spent about a year roaming the U.S. He is no de Tocqueville, and his impressions are catch as catch can; they are not profound.

Levy is not a stranger to America. He had been here many times. He speaks English. And he travels in style, with a driver, in first class accommodations, with introductions to well known Americans (actually American men) in most of the places he visited. There are a few interesting pastiches - I especially enjoyed his treatment of his visit to the Black Hills and Mt. Rushmore. But generally, he stayed above the surface, and moved on too quickly (interrupting his trip for flights to political rallies across the country during the 2004 campaign, and once to take a quick trip back to France to see a new grandchild) from place to place. Yes, he spoke with Norman Mailer, and George Soros, and Morris Dees, and he visited prisons from Rikers Island to (would you believe it?) Guantanamo, but so what?

His conclusions are prosaic: The U.S. has people of various political beliefs. America was not as imperialistic as Britain or France. No position is all right, or all wrong. All Americans are not religious crazies. And so forth.

If you have not read this book, there is no reason to read it now.