So I tell the reluctant readers, the reason you hate Tocqueville is the same reason you had to move out of your parents' home because they are on to you, they know too much about you. For these kids on the plains, I particularly recommend Tocqueville's chapter on how historians think, how they explain things. Aristocratic historians, the author tells us, believe history is made by elites. Great men have the great ideas. Great men make things happen.
Democratic historians believe that history is made by broad causes and ordinary people.
Large forces produce the eras, trends, and conflicts. People respond and make history. And generally, that's a good thing. But not always. Plains folk commonly think of themselves as knocked around by large, impersonal forces like weather, markets, consumerism, environmentalism well, it's quite a list.