Alexander de Tocqueville

Tocqueville surfaces in Kyle’s notes on Reinventing Knowledge — From Alexandria To The Internet as a connection Kyle draws himself: against a passage in the book, his marginal note reads “Connect to Alexander De Tocqueville ‘Americans love to associate.’” The link ties the book’s account of knowledge institutions and voluntary intellectual communities (the Republic of Letters, the research university) to Tocqueville’s famous observation about Americans’ propensity to form associations to get things done.

Context: Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859) was a French aristocrat, political thinker, and historian, author of Democracy in America (1835/1840). His observation that Americans of all ages and conditions are “forever forming associations” — civic, commercial, religious — is a touchstone for thinking about civil society and self-organizing community.

Where this appears

• Reinventing Knowledge — From Alexandria To The Internet — Kyle’s marginal note connects the book to Tocqueville’s “Americans love to associate” theme.