Who should learn from whom: America or Europe? The author interprets Tocqueville's thought in the light of this question, working with the concept of 'Americanism' - to wit, the bringing together of the social state of equality and of liberty, of interest and of virtue, of private and public life, that took place in America without revolucionary rupture. It was this that Tocqueville, with an eye on the European experience of irresistible equalization of life conditions, saw in the American experience.