Purchase
AMERICAN VERTIGO: TRAVELING AMERICA IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF TOCQUEVILLE
By: Bernard-Henri Levy
A look at America
Random House
January 2006
320 pages
ISBN: 1400064341
Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction
What does it mean to be an American, and what can America be today? To answer these questions, celebrated philosopher and journalist Bernard-Henri LΓ©vy spent a year traveling throughout the country in the footsteps of another great Frenchman, Alexis de Tocqueville, whose Democracy in America remains the most influential book ever written about our country. The result is American Vertigo, a fascinating, wholly fresh look at a country we sometimes only think we know. From Rikers Island to Chicago mega-churches, from Muslim communities in Detroit to an Amish enclave in Iowa, LΓ©vy investigates issues at the heart of our democracy: the special nature of American patriotism, the coexistence of freedom and religion (including the religion of baseball), the prison system, the "return of ideology" and the health of our political institutions, and much more. He revisits and updates Tocquevilleβs most important beliefs, such as the dangers posed by "the tyranny of the majority," explores what Europe and America have to learn from each other, and interprets what he sees with a novelistβs eye and a philosopherβs depth. Through powerful interview-based portraits across the spectrum of the American people, from prison guards to clergymen, from Norman Mailer to Barack Obama, from Sharon Stone to Richard Holbrooke, LΓ©vy fills his book with a tapestry of American voices--some wise, some shocking. Both the grandeur and the hellish dimensions of American life are unflinchingly explored. And big themes emerge throughout, from the crucial choices America faces today to the underlying reality that, unlike the "Old World," America remains the fulfillment of the worldβs desire to worship, earn, and live as one wishes--a place, despite all, where inclusion remains not just an ideal but an actual practice. At a time when Americans are anxious about how the world perceives them and, indeed, keen to make sense of themselves, a brilliant and sympathetic foreign observer has arrived to help us begin a new conversation about the meaning of America.
 Media BuzzCharlie Rose - September 23, 2008
Charlie Rose - April 24, 2006
The O'Reilly Factor - April 19, 2006
Charlie Rose - January 27, 2006
Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central - January 26, 2006
Weekend Edition Saturday - November 12, 2005
| 
© 2003-2026