First Things RSS Feed - Diana Schaub https://www.firstthings.com/author/diana-schaub en-us Copyright 2025 First Things. All Rights Reserved. ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) Mon, 20 Jan 2025 16:53:28 -0500 https://d2201k5v4hmrsv.cloudfront.net/img/favicon-196.png First Things RSS Feed Image https://www.firstthings.com/rss/author/diana-schaub 60 On the Anniversary of Tocqueville's Death https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2009/04/on-the-anniversary-of-tocquevilles-death https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2009/04/on-the-anniversary-of-tocquevilles-death Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0400 If Alexis de Tocqueville was right in observing that the American nation insists upon “perpetual adoration of itself,” why have Americans been such devoted readers of Democracy in America for almost two centuries now? Maybe initially Americans mistook the title itself for praise: Surely the author means that democracy in America is a good thing in a good place. And, indeed, in his introduction to volume one (published in 1835), Tocqueville attributed the democratic revolution to God’s providential will, with America being a chosen nation of sorts, since it had most completely attained “equality of conditions.” God’s will notwithstanding, Tocqueville quickly and emphatically made clear that he would not be joining the democratic choir: “One would be strangely mistaken to think that I wanted to make a panegyric.” In the notice that opened volume two (1840), Tocqueville again highlighted his “severe words” for us and for democracy.

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]]> Debating the Human Future https://www.firstthings.com/article/2003/01/debating-the-human-future https://www.firstthings.com/article/2003/01/debating-the-human-future Wed, 01 Jan 2003 00:00:00 -0500 human cloning and human dignity: the report of the president’s council on bioethics

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