What They Saw in America: Alexis de Tocqueville, Max Weber, G.K. Chesterton & Sayyid Qutb - Political Philosophy Book on American Society & Culture for History Students & Researchers
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Product Description
Grounded in the stories of their actual visits, What They Saw in America takes the reader through the journeys of four distinguished, yet very different foreign visitors - Alexis de Tocqueville, Max Weber, G. K. Chesterton and Sayyid Qutb - who traveled to the United States between 1830 and 1950. The comparative insights of these important outside observers (from both European and Middle Eastern countries) encourage sober reflection on a number of features of American culture that have persisted over time - individualism and conformism, the unique relationship between religion and capitalism, indifference toward nature, voluntarism, attitudes toward race, and imperialistic tendencies. Listening to these travelers' views, both the ambivalent and even the more unequivocal, can help Americans better understand themselves, more fully empathize with the values of other cultures, and more deeply comprehend how the United States is perceived from the outside.
Customer Reviews
I greatly enjoyed this book. I typically read biography and history, so I found this a bit different. It was a combination of biography, history, and socio-political- philosophy. I like that the author chose different travelers from different points in time: Alexis de Tocqueville (Tocq) (1830), Max Weber (Max) (1904), Gilbert Keith Chesterton (GKC) (1920) and Sayyid Qutb (Q). Although I wanted to discredit each traveler's disparaging comments about America, I had to concede that they may have had a point. Tocq. was an aristocrat from France criticizing immigrants trying to make a buck, calling them acquisitive or having a "mercantilist spirit". Nevertheless Tocq. seemed to have a finger on the pulse of American in 1830 plus one hundred years. Max seemed to be the most objective observer during his visit, which I thought interesting. GKC was the most magnanimous of all looking for the "lurking positive" in American life. I wearied of Q and his myopic viewpoint, although I understand his concerns. All in all, this is a great study in what outsiders observe in America. It is a timely study, interesting, at times hard to accept, but in the end a good instructive light shone on America as seen by outsiders. Highly recommended.If I have one criticism, it is that I wanted to know more background of each traveler. Consequently, I purchased Joseph Epstein on Tocqueville, an autobiography on GKC, and, going back to a college text, Max Weber's Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.
