Trailer: Tocqueville Road Trip

In May 1831, a 25-year-old French aristocrat named Alexis de Tocqueville stepped off a boat in America. The country was barely 50 years old, a long way from being a superpower. But Tocqueville saw something forming: a society with no kings, where citizens made the rules. He spent nine months on a road trip, filled 14 notebooks, and returned to France to write Democracy in America. John Prideaux, The Economist’s U.S. editor, calls it “the single most insightful thing ever written about the United States.” For 13 years, since he first arrived in Washington as a correspondent, the book has been his companion. Tocqueville’s big insight was that America was more than a country—it was an idea, one with the power to inspire followers and converts across the planet, almost like a religion. But now, two centuries later, more and more people are questioning their faith in the United States. To understand this change, Prideaux is returning to Tocqueville’s method. In a new podcast series, he is retracing the original route, talking to Americans from all walks of life—from New York high society to prisoners in Sing Sing, from acolytes of the president to victims of an unchecked government. He wants to know: Is the country Tocqueville described still there? Or has this great guidebook to the future passed its expiry date?