Tocqueville Deserves a Washington Statue
Like Edmund Burke, the French writer was a foreign observer who got America.
A park in Washington features a statue of Edmund Burke. Dedicated in 1922, the bronze likeness on Massachusetts Avenue honors a British statesman who never set foot on American soil. Yet his inclusion in America’s national pantheon is entirely justified. Burke championed the American colonies from London, recognizing that our revolution was a defense of historic liberties and traditions rather than a radical rupture. He understood the American character.
Surprisingly, our nation’s capital contains no major public monument to Alexis de Tocqueville, the other European giant who diagnosed the American soul. Unlike Burke, Tocqueville traveled here. In 1831, he traversed a young, expanding nation by steamboat, horseback and foot. His “Democracy in America” remains the greatest book about our republic. It is past time we gave Tocqueville his own place in the nation’s capital. A statue of Tocqueville would be a reminder of what makes the American experiment work.
Pursuit of Happiness
The Rise of Latino America
In The Rise of Latino America, Hernandez & Kotkin argue that Latinos, who are projected to become America’s largest ethnic group, are a dynamic force shaping the nation’s demographic, economic, and cultural future. Far from being a marginalized group defined by oppression, Latinos are integral to America’s story. They drive economic growth, cultural evolution, and workforce vitality. Challenges, however, including poverty, educational disparities, and restrictive policies, threaten their upward mobility. Policymakers who wish to harness Latino potential to ensure national prosperity and resilience should adopt policies that prioritize affordability, safety, and economic opportunity over ideological constraints.
.jpg)
.jpg)
The Declaration Is a Metaphysical and Political Triumph
It is the nature of genuinely lasting great texts that we observe new things in them that fit our moment.
Gordon S. Wood's American Revolution
Widely acknowledged as the pre-eminent historian of the American Founding in our time, Wood was virtually without peer within academic American history today.
