God I love Alexis De Tocqueveille.
Very insightful book he and that other guy wrote (he always get the credit). I read it and am proud to be an american.
Its been a while since I read it, like 12 years, but I remember a remark he had made about the way we (Americans) named our streets. He at first lambasted us for such 'pedestrian' methods for naming our roads after numbers... such as 12th & 24th N, or something like that. In France, they had these illustrious names for their streets, like Kings Highway, and Emperors Lane and all that jazz. But it occurred to him later that when he needed to know where he was and how to get from one point to another, the numbering scheme was perfectly practical and efficient.
Thats what De Tocqueveille came away with from his visit to America... That americans were supremely practical, efficient, and industrious. The book also talks about the resource richness of the US. It was an interesting read... and is still pertinent today.
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