Are there parallels between recent developments in ‘Shakespeare Studies’ and the teaching of evolution?
I read a great deal around my subject. In the end this does not matter too much, but people who are interested in this sort of thing can find it on my website. As for Democracy in America I read it closely in my own magpie way. People who know Tocqueville far better than I do will find some of his lines woven into Olivier’s narration. Anytime you stumble across anything dismissive or snobbish about America, that bit came from Tocqueville. These are the lines that have been forgotten in Washington and elsewhere. That is not to say there is not a love affair with America and a particular American. Indeed there is, and it is cerebral and physical and always passionate. As for the historical record, I wanted to be fastidious in one way and reckless in another. I wanted to signal to those who know the territory that my departures from known history were informed choices. For instance, Tocqueville travelled with Beaumont and wrote a report on prisons with him. My Beaumont figure is called Bl
