The Arc of Civilization

The National Broadcasting Company in conjunction with the Fund for Adult Education presents Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville. July 1831, the territory of Michigan. What are these pioneers in the wilderness?

A restless, reasoning, adventurous race which does coldly what only the ardor of passion can explain, a nation of conquerors who submit themselves to the savage life without ever allowing themselves to be seduced by it, and who shut themselves in the American solitude with an axe and some newspapers.

The Ark of Civilization, a study in American character, item four in the series Democracy in America, prepared by the Division of General Education of New York University under the direction of George Prost, American historian.

A series designed to bring to life the America of 1831, as recorded by Alexis de Tocqueville, and so to illuminate the image of democracy itself. A study in American character, the arc of civilization. The centocqueville, the voice of the wilderness.

Almost the only sound we have heard in these silent Michigan forests. And boom on, this wilderness began outside that little town of 2000 souls, Detroit, the last city in the northwest. And it was only a mile from Detroit.

This road entered the forest for good. The territory of Michigan is a vast solitude. But in it, I think, I see the still empty cradle of a great nation. You know, talk real. This dense forest.

This is the frontier. The frontier is here all the time, ready for the taking. Anyone who wants to can pick up his family and move to the west, and every day they do it. On this boundless continent, nature herself favors the cause of the people.