Re-reading Sacvan Bercovitch's The American Jeremiad, I came across a comment (p. 169) in which Bercovitch invoked Tocqueville on the form of political rhetoric in the US."The contending parties, as Toqueville astutely noted, did 'not publish books to refute each other, but pamphlets which circulate[d] at an incredible rate, last[ed] a day, and died.'"Seems to me Toqueville would have an "a-ha" moment were he to encounter the blogosphere.

Cathleen Kaveny is the Darald and Juliet Libby Professor in the Theology Department and Law School at Boston College.

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