Chasing the Red, White, and Blue A Journey in Tocqueville's Footsteps Through Contemporary America

by Cohen, David

• ISBN13: 9780312302498
• ISBN10: 0312302495
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-01-04
• Publisher: Picador

Summary

UsingDemocracy in Americaas his model, acclaimed British and South African journalist David Cohen retraces Alexis de Tocqueville's journey around the country to observe how the balance between the rich and the poor has changed over the past 150 years. Traveling from New York to the Ohio River Valley, the deep South, California, and finally to Washington, D.C., Cohen captures an America where inequality is balanced by unquenchable hope. David Cohenis an award-winning British and South African journalist who has written forThe Independent,The Guardian,The Financial Times, and BritishGQ, as well as forThe New York Times. He was born in Birmingham, England, grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa, and returned to England in the late eighties to attend Oxford University where he studied politics, philosophy and economics. He came to the United States in 1997 on a Harkness Fellowship and was hosted by Columbia University for three years. He lives in London with his wife and two daughters. In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville made his 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 classicDemocracy in America, the book that defined "equality of opportunity" as the wellspring national character. At the end of the twentieth century, London journalist David Cohen made that same journey, with one new destinationthe frontier of Silicon Valley in California.Chasing the Red, White, and Blueis his account: a thought-provoking inquiry into the lives of Americans today. Talking with people at every level of societyfrom Manhattan real estate brokers and Washington lobbyists to supermarket clerks and illegal aliensCohen finds equality elusive and the poor increasingly adrift from American society. But he also finds hope alive in the most unexpected of places. Just asDemocracy in Americatook the measure of our young republic,Chasing the Red, White, and Blueportrays a much-changed America on the cusp of a new millennium: still united by our passion for democracy, yet divided by our prejudices. "A lively, easy-to-read piece of analytic journalism . . . Cohen succeeds in capturing the ethos of the country as it sped into the new century."Los Angeles Times "Impressive . . . An audacious book . . . A thoughtful indictment of growing inequality in the United States."Mark Hertsgaard, author ofThe Eagle's ShadowandOn Bended Knee "Extraordinary . . . An important and long-overdue revisiting of [Tocqueville's] landmark work."Richmond Times-Dispatch "Cohen tours America and pulls Alexis de Tocqueville inside out, or perhaps simply pulls the wool from his eyes, in this sad song to the country's economic disparities and ethical malaise."Kirkus Reviews "Chasing the Red, White, and Blueis the kind of heroic, epic investigation of the American soul that we used to associate with such native-born giants as James Agee and John Steinbeck. That it was written by a young British South African retracing the 170-year-old trail of a sojourning Frenchman only enhances its aura of singular brilliance. Alexis de Tocqueville would bow to the achievement of his proteacute;geacute;, David Cohen. The rest of us may take his consummate reportage, inspired analysis and disputatious passion as a model for renewed involvement in our fraught and still-hopeful nation."Ron Powers, coauthor ofFlags of Our Fathers "Compassionate, fascinating, and compelling . . . The hearty nucleus of Cohen's book seethes with real people discussing their salaries, expectations,

Author Biography

David Cohen has written for the Independent, British GQ, and the Guardian Weekend Magazine, as well as The New York Times. In 1997, Cohen was the recipient of the Harkness Fellowship, which he used to research and write this book. He lives in London with his wife and two daughters.

Table of Contents

Introduction	ix
New York, New York
A City of Two Tales	1	(51)
The Rust Belt
The American Dream in Retreat	52	(29)
The Ohio River Valley
Hard Work and the American Dream	81	(50)
The Mississippi Delta
``Luck Available One Mile''	131	(32)
On Through The Deep South
The Battle for the Soul of America	163	(55)
California
The America Tocqueville Never Knew	218	(48)
Washington, D.C.
The Sum of the Parts	266	(27)
Notes	293	(16)
Acknowledgments	309

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