Chasing the red, white, and blue

By Cohen, David

Subjects: Biography, American National characteristics, Tocqueville, alexis de, 1805-1859, Description and travel, National characteristics, American, Social conditions, Travel

Description: "In 1831 a young French Aristocrat named Alexis de Tocqueville made a journey to America, traveling from New York to the frontier city of Flint, Michigan, down the Ohio River Valley and into Mississippi, then turning east through the Old South, and concluding in Washington, D. C. His journey spawned the classic Democracy in America, the book that defined "equality of opportunity" as the wellspring of our national character.". "At the end of the twentieth century, journalist David Cohen retraced that same journey and added one new destination - the frontier of Silicon Valley in California. Chasing the Red, White, and Blue is his account: a funny, powerful, troubling, and thought-provoking inquiry into the lives of Americans today. Talking with people at every level of society - from Manhattan real estate brokers and Washington lobbyists to supermarket clerks and illegal aliens - Cohen finds equality elusive and the poor increasingly adrift from American society. But he also finds hope alive in the most poignant and unexpected of places."--BOOK JACKET.