Richard Heffner produced this edition of De Tocqueville's book in order to abridge and edit the original work in order to appeal to a younger audience so that more people may read it and have a knowledge of the ideas presented within.
             Heffner's introduction basically served to outline the organization of De Tocqueville's book. The first part of the critique begins with a brief description of the New World's dimensions, of the origins of Anglo-Americans and of democracy and the absolute sovereignty of the people. Next follows an obsolete summary of the workings of the American government, then an analysis of the book's central theme: the tyranny of the majority in the United States. The second part deals with the influence of democracy or majority rule on the foundation and dynamics of American society, on how American's think, feel, and act, and on the indispensable nature of our freedoms. Here is where Tocqueville makes his unique and prophetic contributions to contemporary thought. Tocqueville's overall concern is for the development and survival of freedom and democracy.
             Heffner feels that Democracy in America suffers grievously from omissions and misinterpretations that can be traced directly to the author's to easy assumptions and to his desire to summarize, interpret, and generalize. However, despite these inadequacies and subjectivity of approach, many of Tocqueville's generalizations are surprisingly shrewd and perceptive.
             After having seen the failed attempts at democratic government in France, Tocqueville desired to study a stable and prosperous democracy to gain insights into how it worked in order so that they might learn from our example and devise a plan to set up a democratic government that would work to suit them. Tocqueville wanted to analyze democracy in order to determine its strengths and dangers so that governments could be formed to reinforce democracy's s...