Alexis de Tocqueville seemed very happy with some of the early American political ideas, but he was also struck by Americans' relationship to money and how it affected the society. At the time when Tocqueville visited the United States, New England was becoming a global leader in shipping, and the use of slaves for farm work in the South was at its height. Tocqueville's essay included this statement.
As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only in the answer to this single question: how much money will it bring in?
- Alexis de Tocqueville
Did Tocqueville have a valid point? And, if so, what aspects of the nation's founding may have led Americans to place such a high value on profit? Use the questions in the worksheet below to evaluate Tocqueville's claim about "the national character of the Americans" both then and now.