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06460_Field_TCUM T25.txt
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1996-03-19
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other media as well, especially the semaphore telegraph that
gave him a great advantage over his enemies. He is on record
for saying that “Three hostile newspapers are more to be
feared than a thousand bayonets.”
Alexis de Tocqueville was the first to master the grammar
of print and typography. He was thus able to read off the
message of coming change in France and America as if he were
reading aloud from a text that had been handed to him. In fact,
the nineteenth century in France and in America was just such
an open book to de Tocqueville because he had learned the
grammar of print. So he, also, knew when that grammar did
not apply. He was asked why he did not write a book on
England, since he knew and admired England. He replied:
One would have to have an unusual degree of philosophical