Trailer: Tocqueville Road Trip

In May 1831, a 25-year-old French aristocrat named Alexis de Tocqueville arrived in America by boat. The United States was barely 50 years old, still a long way from being a superpower. But Tocqueville caught a glimpse of what it could become: a new kind of society, a land with no kings or queens, where citizens made the rules. He spent nine months on a road trip, speaking to Americans from all walks of life, filling 14 notebooks with observations. He returned to France and wrote Democracy in America. John Prideaux, The Economist’s U.S. editor, calls it "the single most insightful thing ever written about the United States."

Now, nearly two centuries later, Prideaux is retracing Tocqueville’s route for a new podcast series, Tocqueville Road Trip. The question driving the journey is straightforward: Is the country Tocqueville described still there? Or has his great guidebook to the future passed its expiry date?

Tocqueville’s original insight

Tocqueville arrived in 1831, when the U.S. was barely 50 years old and still far from being a superpower. He caught a glimpse of what it could become: a new kind of society, one with no kings or queens, where citizens made the rules. Over nine months, he filled 14 notebooks and dozens of letters with observations from Americans of all walks of life. He returned to France and wrote Democracy in America.