What They Saw in America - Alexis de Tocqueville, Max Weber, G. K. Chesterton, and Sayyid Qutb

307 Pages·2016·2.169 MB·English

by  James L. Nolan, Jr

What They Saw in America
Grounded in the stories of their actual visits, What They Saw in
America takes the reader into the journeys of four distinguished yet
very different foreign visitors – Alexis de Tocqueville, Max Weber,
G.K.Chesterton,andSayyidQutb–whotraveledtotheUnitedStates
between 1830 and 1950. The comparative insights of these important
outside observers (from both Europe and the Middle East) encourage
soberreflectiononanumberoffeaturesofAmericanculturethathave
persistedovertime:individualismandconformism,theuniquerelation-
ship between religion and capitalism, indifference toward nature, vol-
untarism,attitudestowardrace,andimperialistictendencies.Listening
to these travelers’ views, both the ambivalent and even the more
unequivocal, can help Americans better understand themselves, more
fully empathize with the values of other cultures, and more deeply
comprehendhowtheUnitedStatesisperceivedfromtheoutside.
james l. nolan jr. is a professor of sociology at Williams College.
His teaching and research interests fall within the general areas of law
andsociety,culture,technologyandsocialchange,andhistoricalcom-
parative sociology. His previous books include Legal Accents, Legal
Borrowing: The International Problem-Solving Court Movement
(2009); Reinventing Justice: The American Drug Court Movement
(2001);andTheTherapeuticState:JustifyingGovernmentatCentury’s
End(1998).Heistherecipientofseveralgrantsandawards,including
National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships and a Fulbright
scholarship. He has held visiting fellowships at Oxford University,
LoughboroughUniversity,andtheUniversityofNotreDame.
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What They Saw in America
Alexis de Tocqueville, Max Weber,
G. K. Chesterton, and Sayyid Qutb
JAMES L. NOLAN JR.
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32AvenueoftheAmericas,NewYorkny10013–2473,usa
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Firstpublished2016
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
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Names:Nolan,JamesL.,Jr.,author.
Title:WhattheysawinAmerica:AlexisdeTocqueville,MaxWeber,G.K.Chesterton,
andSayyidQutb/JamesL.Nolan,Jr.,WilliamsCollege,Williamstown,Mass.
Description:NewYorkNY:CambridgeUniversityPress,2016.|Includes
bibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2015051003|isbn9781107146617(Hardback:alk.paper)
|isbn9781316601594(Paperback:alk.paper)
Subjects:LCSH:Nationalcharacteristics,American–History.|Tocqueville,Alexisde,
1805–1859–Politicalandsocialviews.|Weber,Max,1864–1920–Politicaland
socialviews.|Chesterton,G.K.(GilbertKeith),1874–1936–Politicalandsocial
views.|Qutb,Sayyid,1906–1966–Politicalandsocialviews.
Classification:LCCE169.1.N7252016|DDC973–dc23LCrecordavailable
athttp://lccn.loc.gov/2015051003
isbn978-1-107-14661-7Hardback
isbn978-1-316-60159-4Paperback
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To my students
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Contents
Acknowledgments pageix
Introduction 1
1 Pride, Patriotism, and the Mercantilist Spirit:
Tocqueville and Beaumont Discover America 11
2 Tocqueville and the Quandary of American Democracy 36
3 Agrarianism,Race,and the Endof Romanticism:
Weber inEarlyTwentieth-CenturyAmerica 66
4 Weber on Sects, Schools, and the Spirit ofCapitalism 93
5 ANew Martin Chuzzlewit: Chesterton on Main Street 116
6 Chestertonian Distributism and the Democratic Ideal 141
7 From Musha to New York: Qutb Encounters
American Jahiliyya 163
8 Qutb’s“Inquiring Eyes” in Colorado and California 183
Conclusion 203
Notes 237
References 283
Index 291
vii
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Acknowledgments
Asthisbookrepresentssomethingofadeparturefrommypreviouswork,
I necessarily depended upon and profited from the help of a number
of institutions and individuals. Included among these were the many
Williams College students who assisted in the project. I received direct
help from four able research assistants: Erin Altenburger, in the early
phases of the project, and Holly Whitney, Margaret Moore, and Erin
Curley at later stages of research and writing. I have for several years
taughtacourseatWilliamsCollegeunderthesametitleasthebookand,
in this context, benefited from working on the project’s central themes
withintelligentandengagedstudents.AformerWilliamsCollegestudent,
Dan Burns, assisted in translating some of Sayyid Qutb’s writings
on America. Chris Opila and Chloe Bordewich translated additional
Qutb material from Arabic to English for me, and William Stewart
carefully translated three German newspaper accounts of an important
Max Weber lecture.
AsemesterasafellowattheNotreDameInstituteforAdvancedStudy
served me well during a time when I was mainly working on the Weber
chapters. Discussion of material with fellows at the Institute proved
instructive.EspeciallyhelpfulwasfeedbackIreceivedfromMarkRoche,
bothduringthetime ofthefellowship and intheyears after returningto
Williams College. Others who read and commented on all or parts of
the manuscript include Michael Aronson, Magnus Bernhardsson, John
Calvert, Leo Damrosch, Joseph Davis, Patrick Deneen, Nick Howe,
Jonathan Imber,ChrisJensen, Mary Kirby, Gianfranco Poggi, Lawrence
Scaff, Olga Shevchenko, Christian Smith, and Robert Wuthnow.
These friends, colleagues, and scholars were incredibly generous with
ix
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x Acknowledgments
the time and effort they committed to reading (and, in some cases,
rereading) chapters of the book—a wonderful example of Tocquevillian
voluntarism on display. I’m also grateful for input I received from
Guenther Roth during an afternoon in New York when I was just
beginning work on theproject.
I was welcomed and assisted at a number of places where I collected
dataforthebook,includingtheBritishLibraryinLondon;thearchivesat
the University of Notre Dame’s Hesburgh Library; the Massachusetts
Historical Society Library in Boston; the archives at University of
Northern Colorado’s James A. Michener Library; the Legion of Honor,
Fine Arts Museum in San Francisco; the La Venta Inn in Palos Verdes,
California;theG.K.ChestertonLibraryinOxford,UnitedKingdom;the
Beinecke Library at Yale University; and the Château de Tocqueville,
in Normandy, France, where Alexis de Tocqueville wrote sections of
Democracy in America. Many thanks to Jean-Guillaume de Tocqueville
for the private tour of the beautiful estate once occupied by his famous
great-great-greatgrand-uncleandtoMelvinSchutandJonathanPricefor
helping to arrange the visit. Jay Trask, archivist at the Michener Library
at the University of Northern Colorado, never tired of my repeated
requests for additional material on Qutb during my stay in Greeley,
Colorado. A Class of 1945 World Fellowship from the Dean’s Office at
WilliamsCollegehelpedtofundtheproject’svariousresearchtrips.Iwas
also aided through support from the Oakley Center for Humanities and
Social Sciences.
I gained much from the firsthand accounts of three individuals
who knew Qutb when he was a student at Colorado State College of
Educationinthesummerandfallof1949.Invaluableweremyinterviews
with Saeb Dajani, Ibrahim Insari, and Jamie McClendon. For helpful
assistance on G. K. Chesterton materials, I owe thanks to Stratford
Caldecott, Tessa Caldecott, Ian Ker, and Aidan Mackey. I’m grateful
for the editorial and production work of Lewis Bateman, Claudia
Bona-Cohen,and Joshua Penney atCambridge University Press.
Finally,Iwasaidedbymyever-supportivefamily,includingAmyand
Davidwho(inadditiontotheformer’sfineartwork)readandcommented
onsectionsofthebook;mylateandbelovedfather,JamesL.Nolan,who
offered feedback on early drafts of two chapters, even while his health
declined in the last months of his life; Laura and Will, who never ceased
to amuse and show interest; and Cathy, whose contributions are too
innumerableto name or count.
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Introduction
AlexisdeTocquevilleobservedthatbecauseAmericanslivein“perpetual
adoration” of themselves, “only foreigners or experience can make
certain truths reach [their] ears.”1 Political scientist Russell Hanson
agrees, adding that the assessments of a single outside observer may not
be enough to “inspire self-criticism on the part of Americans.” Needed,
says Hanson, are the comparative observations of “different foreign
eyes.”2 In keeping with these insights, this book traces the travels
and writings of four foreign visitors who spent time in the United
States, returned to their home countries, and then wrote about what
they saw. The four outside observers journeyed to the New World at
different historical moments – Alexis de Tocqueville (1831–32), Max
Weber (1904), G. K. Chesterton (1921; 1930–31), and Sayyid Qutb
(1948–50) – and hailed from four separate countries (France, Germany,
England, and Egypt respectively). While the visitors emphasized distinct
features ofAmerican society, one also discoverscommon themes in their
analyses. In that their visits spanned a period of nearly 120 years,
their common observations say something about the enduring relevance
ofAmerican national character. Beyond thecontested notion ofnational
character,theircollectiveassessmentscontinuetobeardirectlyonmatters
ofpressing national and international concern.
My initial interest in the subject was sparked, in part, by my previous
book,LegalAccents,LegalBorrowing,whichinvestigatedthetransplant-
ationofinnovativecriminalcourtprogramsfromtheUnitedStatestofive
other common-law countries. Curiously, while legal actors in the other
countries eagerly borrowed what were clearly American-grown legal
products, they sometimes did so in explicitly anti-American terms,
1
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2 What They Saw inAmerica
evincing what could be called a sort of “ambivalent anti-Americanism.”
Such ambivalence, as recent international surveys demonstrate, is not
isolated to the transference of new criminal courts. Findings from inter-
nationalsurveysshowthatamajorityofcitizensinanumberofcountries
around the world oppose the spread of American ideas and customs
in their countries, while at the same time they welcome and admire
Americantechnologyandculturalproducts.3Thesefindings,again,reveal
acurious paradox that invitesfurther exploration.
Another impetus for this book was the public commentary that
followed the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Immediately
after 9/11, it was not uncommon to hear Americans ask, “Why do they
hateus?”Thequestion,however,quicklyfadedfromnationalconscious-
ness, as the United States entered into military engagement first in
Afghanistan and then in Iraq. Yet, it remains an important question.
Such public declarations as “they areenemies offreedom”hardly satisfy
4
asplausibleexplanations. Thatlittletimeandeffortwasgiventoponder
this question is not entirely surprising. To be deeply concerned about
the interests and perspectives of other countries has not always been
regarded asAmerica’s strong suit.
Findings from the 2007 Pew Global Attitudes survey show that a
majorityofrespondentsinothercountriessaythat“whenmakingforeign
policy decisions the U.S. does not take into account the interest of
other countries.”5 This is certainly the case in the Middle East, where
respondents “overwhelmingly believe the U.S. ignores their interests.”
For example, 74 percent of the Egyptians, 75 percent of the Turks,
75 percent of the Jordanians, and 83 percent of the Palestinians say that
theUnitedStatesconsiderstheinterestsoftheircountry“nottoomuch”or
“notatall.”Suchattitudesarenot,however,isolatedtotheMiddleEast.
Europeans have reported much the same: 71 percent of the Germans,
89 percent of the French, 75 percent of the Spanish, and 91 percent
oftheSwedessaytheUnitedStatesignorestheircountries’interests.6
That many Americans ventured to ask the question, “Why do they
hateus?”however,suggestssomeinterestinwantingtounderstandhow
peopleinothercountriesthink;and,ofcourse,noteveryoneignoredthis
question. Less than two years after the 9/11 attacks, National Public
Radio (NPR) ran a story on the Egyptian Sayyid Qutb, who visited the
UnitedStatesfortwenty-onemonthsbetween1948and1950.Following
thetimehespentintheUnitedStates,QutbreturnedtoEgyptandjoined
the Muslim Brotherhood, becoming one of its most influential thinkers.
Indeed,Qutbhasbeenvariouslydescribedas“oneofthemostinfluential
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