In the May issue of the Atlantic Monthly, French writer Bernard-Henri Lévy chronicles his recent travels around the U.S., following in the footsteps of Alexis de Tocqueville. Tocqueville, the author of “Democracy in America,” was born 200 years ago this year, which according to goofy journalistic conventions makes the article more timely now than it would have been, say, last year. Anyway, it’s a promising concept: a contemporary French writer updating the classic account of his countryman published well over a century ago. Editors gave Lévy lots of room in the magazine, and he covers plenty of ground in the article, writing of his visit to Rikers Island prison, the baseball Hall of Fame and the Mall of America. He waxes philosophical about Barack Obama and ponders the psychological reasons behind the American flags he spots everywhere.

The highlight of the story, oddly, is an unlikely conversation he has with a Michigan cop who orders him to stop as he is urinating by the highway. (Lévy: “I’m writing about following the path of Tocqueville...” Cop: “Tocqueville--really? Alexis de Tocqueville?") From this exchange, Lévy concludes, among other things, that America is more complicated than some might think. “[W]hat better reply to those who keep telling us that America is a country of backward cowboys and uneducated people?” he writes. “And what a magnificent challenge to those who want to use Francophobia as the last word these days in our transatlantic relations.”

The story is entitled “In the Footsteps of Tocqueville.” Lévy had huge shoes to fill. I enjoyed bits and pieces of the the article, but I’m not sure Levy always succeeded in filling those shoes. The article is not available online.