1. Thoreau and Tocqueville each sought to discern underlying patterns and tendencies in American society at very nearly the same period, and both adopted “outsider” positions in doing so--Tocqueville as a foreign visitor, Thoreau as an “outsider-within” who renounced his fellow citizens’ pursuits and many of their values. Choose a few specific themes by which to compare their perspectives.
2. Contrast Tocqueville’s “romanticized” view of women with that of Harriet Martineau, and both of them with that of John Adams. How (if at all) do Tocqueville and Adams counter Martineau’s argument that everyone has a conscience, but women are prevented from acting in accordance with theirs?
3. What are some of the major social and political features and problems of equality of conditions as Tocqueville describes and analyzes them?
4. What is the nature of the democratic despotism that Tocqueville fears? Discuss some of the features of American politics by which Tocqueville thinks this danger may be prevented or forestalled.
5. In Resistance to Civil Government Thoreau draws a series of contrasts between the citizen as subject and the ethical individual. Discuss these contrasts.
6. Discuss the role Christian beliefs and ideals play in the writings of Benjamin Banneker, Harriet Martineau, the authors of the Declaration of Sentiments, and Thoreau.
7. Would Thoreau still feel today that “That government is best which governs least” given the decline in the sense of individual responsibility? In answering this question, be sure to address the arguments Thoreau makes in Resistance to Civil Government. Are they still applicable today?
8. Your question (discuss with me before proceeding).