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 Join our nonfiction e-newsletter by visiting www.rh-newsletters.com Random House New York, N.Y. © 2006 by Random House, Inc. 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 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 Book design by Simon M. Sullivan