American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville

324 Pages·2007·4.7 MB·English

by  Bernard-Henri Levy

raveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville
levy is a fearless intellectual risk-taker..
a thinker we cannot afford to be without.
-John Gray, NewStatesrm
EKTIlîU
"Bernard-Henri Levy does nothing that goes unnoticed.
He is an intellectual adventurer
who brings publicity to unfashionable political causes."
— The New York Times
"There is no theatrical American philosopher who manages
Levy's blend of glamour, literacy and political engagement."
— The Washington Post
U.S.A. $24.95
Canada $34.95
What does it mean to be an American,
and what can America be today? To answer these
questions, celebrated philosopher and journalist
Bernard-Henri Levy 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,
Muslim communities in Detroit to an Amish enclave in
Iowa, Levy 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 Tocqueville's
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 novelist's eye and a philosopher's
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, Levy 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 ful
fillment of the world's desire to worship, earn, and live
as one wishes —a place, despite all, where inclusioI l'
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 conver
sation about the meaning of America.
is
BERNARD-HENRI LEVY
a philosopher, journalist,
activist, and filmmaker. He was hailed by Vanity Fair
magazine as "Superman and prophet: we have no
equivalent in the United States." Among his dozens of
books are Barbarism with a Human Face and Who
Killed Daniel Pearl? His writing has appeared in a wide
range of publications throughout Europe and the United
States. His films include the documentaries Bosna! and
A Day in the Death of Sarajevo. Levy is co-founder of
the antiracist group SOS Racism and has served on
diplomatic missions for the French government.
Jacket design and photograph: Jan Glinski
Author photograph: © Thierry Dudoit/L'Express/Editing
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Also by Bernard-Henri Levy
War, Evil, and the End of History
Who Killed Daniel Pearl?
Sartre: The Philosopher of the Twentieth Century
Barbarism with a Human Face
AMERICAN VERTIGO
Traveling America in the Footsteps of
Translated by Charlotte Mandell
Copyright © 2006 by Bernard-Henri Levy
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Random House, an imprint of The Random
House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
RANDOM HOUSE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House,
Inc.
Portions of this work appeared, sometimes in different form, in a series of
essays published throughout 2005 m The Atlantic Monthly. Copyright © 2005
by Bernard-Henri Levy.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Levy, Bernard-Henri.
American vertigo: traveling America in the footsteps of Tocqueville /
Bernard-Henri Levy; translated by Charlotte Mandell
p. cm.
ISBN 1-4000-6434-1 (hardcover)
1. United States—Description and travel. 2. United States—Social
conditions—1980— 3. Levy, Bernard-Henri—Travel—United States.
4. Tocqueville, Alexis de, 1805-1859—Travel—United States.
5. National characteristics, American. I. Title.
E169.Z83L48 2005
917.304'931—dc22 2005044782
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
www.atrandom.com
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Book design by Simon M. Sullivan