Alexis De Tocqueville

Marriage Equality: Our Rights Are Not Up for Debate!

Warren J. Blumenfeld | Posted 05.11.2012

Read More: Supreme Court, Vice President Biden, Loving v. Virginia, President Obama, Alexis De Tocqueville, Brown v. Board of Education, Federalism, Roe v. Wade, Ballot Initiatives, Same-Sex Marriage, Gay Marriage, Gay Voices News
Warren J. Blumenfeld

While many of our political leaders debate issues of marriage equality, I do not believe that the rights of minoritized people should be up for debate and should be settled on in the voting booth.

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We All Do Better When We All Do Better

Stan Sorscher | Posted 05.03.2012

Read More: Top 1%, Income Inequality, Productivity, Ross Perot, Invisible Hand, Henry Ford, Alexis De Tocqueville, Self-Interest, Strong Middle Class, Real Wages, Lesser America, Erik Reinert, Nick Hanauer, Joseph Stiglitz, The One Percent, Economics, Business News
Stan Sorscher

Lately, the public mood has gone the opposite way. Simply put, we are told that we will all do better when most of us do worse.

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Is That All There Is? Rugged Indvidualism

Dimitri Hamlin | Posted 05.14.2012

Read More: John F. Kennedy, American Exceptionalism, Turner Thesis, Rugged Conformists, Walter Huston, Cooperstown, Amish, Frederick Jackson Turner, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Whiskey Rebellion, Theodore Roosevelt, Manhood at Harvard, Alexis De Tocqueville, Henry David Thoreau, James Fenimore Cooper, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, Gary Cooper, Jean-Paul Sartre, Great Depression, Herbert Hoover, Humphrey Bogart, Emma Lazarus, William James, B. Traven, Trust, The Moral Equivalent of War, Kim Townsend, Natty Bumppo, Barack Obama, John Huston, Rugged Individualism, Hawkeye, Francis Fukuyama, High Noon, Reading Terminal Market, Self-Reliance, Autarky, Deerslayer, Mind, Religion News
Dimitri Hamlin

It's a good thing that, when push comes to shove, we're really not rugged individualists. I'm thinking that it's almost time for us to accept who we are.

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A Trust Deficit? Look to the Inequality

Ray Brescia | Posted 03.21.2012

Read More: Elections 2012, Mitt Romney, Income Inequality, Barack Obama, Alexis De Tocqueville, Economic Growth, Politics News
Ray Brescia

Politics aside, in order to promote economic growth, work must be done to restore the trust-growth connection, and in order to restore this connection, policies that reduce income inequality can help rebuild trust by reducing social distance.

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Humility, Chutzpah And Democracy In America

Parker J. Palmer | Posted 02.11.2012

Read More: Islam, Religion, Religion and Politics, Democracy, Christianity, Alexis De Tocqueville, Judaism, Heart Habits, Religion in America, Habits of the Heart, Healing the Heart of Democracy, Religion News
Parker J. Palmer

Humility plus chutzpah equals the kind of citizens democracy needs, and there is no reason -- at least no good reason -- why our number cannot be legion. Religious communities can help multiply that number.

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Patience and Fortitude: The New York Public Library Turns 100

Paul Gunther | Posted 07.13.2011

Read More: Architecture, Alexis De Tocqueville, Patience and Fortitude, Private Philanthropy, New York Public Library, Public Libraries, Neoclassical Architecture, New York News
Paul Gunther

It's time to celebrate the restoration and refurbishment just now liberated from its curative scaffolds. Pay a visit soon to examine the facade and the many stories told by its narrative decoration.

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The Conundrum of Democratic Leadership

Glenn C. Altschuler | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Democracy, Leadership, Framing the Issues, Alexis De Tocqueville, Public Opinion, John Dewey, The Presidency, The Rhetorical Presidency, The State of the Union, Barack Obama, Books News
Glenn C. Altschuler

Keohane does not present her own comprehensive theory about leadership. She is skeptical -- and rightfully so -- of "one-size-fits-all" explanations.

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A Politically-Polarized Sesquicentennial

Chris Weigant | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Tea Party, Newspapers, Contrarian, Andrew Butler, Secession, Secede, Media, Democracy in America, Civil Rights, Republican, Partisan Press, History, Alexis De Tocqueville, World War I, American History, Yellow Journalism, Mob, Espionage Act, Mccarthyism, Slavery, Bleeding Kansas, Abraham Lincoln, Julian Assange, House Divided, Preston Brooks, Caning, Civil War, Tea Party Republicans, Southern Strategy, Heritage, Missouri Compromise, Democrat, Tocqueville, Red-Baiting, Yellow Dog, Anti-War, Vincennes Gazette, Cane, South, Chris Weigant, Individualism, Sesquicentennial, Fox News, Being Mobbed, Lyndon Johnson, 150th Anniversary, News, Senate, Politics News
Chris Weigant

While we are indeed currently politically divided and somewhat polarized, this is actually our normal state as a nation -- and on the polarization scale, we're nowhere near the "most divided" we've ever been. Far from it.

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Our Fourth Instinct

John Bridgeland | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: John F. Kennedy, Citizenship, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Franklin Roosevelt, Barack Obama, Arianna Huffington, Peace Corps, Ted Kennedy, George H.W. Bush, Alexis De Tocqueville, Civic Engagement, Richard Nixon, Service, Interfaith, Lyndon Johnson, Impact News
John Bridgeland

It is no surprise then that service has been the golden thread of American democracy. Like democracy itself, service has to continually reinvent itself to meet the needs of the modern age.

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When Did the Senate Turn into Pre-school?

Dr. Jim Taylor | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, Alexis De Tocqueville, Pre-Schoolers, Parenting, Politics News
Dr. Jim Taylor

To call what has happened in the Senate a devolution is an insult to all the good and decent apes from which humankind has evolved.

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What We Talk About When We Talk About Mosques

John Feffer | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Law, Ground Zero Mosque, Saul Bellow, Jeff Merkley, Alexis De Tocqueville, World News
John Feffer

For me, the issue is a no-brainer. The center promotes inter-religious and intercultural dialogue, which is precisely what we need more of to prevent future attacks.

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Are Restless Americans Unhappy Americans?

Wray Herbert | Posted 11.17.2011

Read More: Psychological Science, Population Genetics, Alexis De Tocqueville, Pursuit of Happiness, Perspectives on Psychological Science, Positive Psychology, University of Virginia, Novelty Seeking, Happiness, Oishi, The Inner Life, Healthy Living News
Wray Herbert

Psychologist Shigehiro Oishi has for some years been studying the mental and emotional consequences of residential mobility. He shows that mobility shapes our identities, friendships and even our happiness.

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In Search of Muslim Identity: Akbar Ahmed's Journey into America

John Milewski | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Islam, Pluralism, David Kilcullen, Alexis De Tocqueville, Afghanistan, Terrorism, Pakistan, Muslim Americans, Akbar Ahmed, American Identity, Thomas Jefferson, Melting Pot, Faisal Shahzad Times Square Bomber, Iraq, Diversity, Books News
John Milewski

Author Akbar Ahmed has dedicated himself to building bridges of understanding between worlds. I asked him about the impact of Faisal Shahzad's actions on the larger goal of increasing trust among Muslims and non-Muslims in the U.S. and beyond.

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Haskell Captures the Dynamics Underlying an American Icon in Frankly, My Dear: Gone with the Wind Revisited

Penelope Andrew | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Kay Brown, Irene Mayer Selznick, Academy Awards, Films, Nebiy Mekonnen, Books, Victor Fleming, Hattie McDaniel, Molly Haskell, Thomas Mitchell, Scarlett O'Hara, Gone With the Wind, Olivia De Havilland, Ethiopia, Margaret Mitchell, Alexis De Tocqueville, My Dear: Gone With the Wind Revisited, A Streetcar Named Desire, George Cukor, William Cameron Menzies, Blanche DuBois, Sidney Howard, David O. Selznick, Vivien Leigh, Richmond, Clark Gable, Frankly, Books News
Penelope Andrew

Film scholar Molly Haskell couldn't have been a more perfect choice for Yale University Press to tap for an Icons of America volume that explicates the phenomenon of Gone with the Wind.

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Alexis de Tocqueville: Letters From America

Paula Deitz | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Paula Deitz, Tocqueville, Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America, De Tocqueville, Hudson Review, Books News
Paula Deitz

The Hudson Review has published 40 pages of Alexis de Tocqueville's Letters from America, the back story of Democracy in America, his future classic.

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Cold War's End -- The Wall Comes Down

Chris Weigant | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Soviets, Russian, Germany, Nuke, The Wall, Bomb, Democracy in America, The Wall Live, Berlin, Tocqueville, Cold War, Soviet Union, Nukes, East Germany, Communism, Roger Waters, Soviet, Nuclear Weapons, Alexis De Tocqueville, Brandenburg Gate, Chris Weigant, De Tocqueville, Checkpoint Charlie, Russia, Atom Bomb, Berlin Wall, H Bomb, East Berlin, A Bomb, Nuclear Bomb, Brandenburg, Politics News
Chris Weigant

The fall of The Wall signified the fall of the Soviet Union, and an end to the Cold War. And while this was of enormous historical import, I fear that future generations won't really pay much attention to it.

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