Re: Democracy in America

Usually when I write an email about a book, especially a glowing email, it means I probably won't be reading that book. Though Democracy in America would be a good one.

Wouldn't it be great to find a book written by someone and about people who were directly tuned in to things you are tuned in to? Like, to find a narrative or memoir about a group of people in the 17th century (or something) who knew of Work knowledge and practice and how they went about their lives and all that. That would be a discovery.

The Work books we have are sort of like that though. Minus the romance or glitter of courts and kings and generals and wives and woman of illustrious times and orbits of society.

Every great book is struggling to birth such a narrative and discuss such ideas and practices and goals though. Epictetus, Wealth of Nations, Greek myth...

"And so you've heard about Drake? After he visited us last spring he has set forth on a new journey. He consciously made his ocean voyage a work journey. By the time he came to the west coast of the New World he had been so awake under the stars and sun and fought so many battles, successfully, that the waters were teeming with higher spirits. He's a Puritan you know, as well. He can tell the spirits apart. Sailed right past San Francisco Bay! There are many great cities out there above the oceans..."








> de Toqueville's Democracy in America
> is a unique book. It's a great book. It has that solid,
> foundational wisdom and common-sense - and understanding of
> its subject - you find in classical works of literature. In
> perspective it is very much in the category of the works of
> the classical historians.
>
> The title itself may turn one off, making one think it is
> too narrow in subject matter, but it is filled with
> universal human nature and patterns of human activity and
> interaction and so on.
>
> I think it is my next 'big book' to get involved in in a
> complete reading.
>
> - C.
>
>
>
>