Editor's note: On the occasion of Independence Day, we felt it appropriate to reprint, from our Australian edition, the remarks of University of Sydney political thinker and writer John Keane on why Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America - 180 years on from its first publication - is still worth reading, whatever one's perspective. The remarks were originally delivered as a lecture to the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Scholars Program at the University of Sydney, April 24 2015 .