Ryan Bernsten’s 50 States of Mind: A Journey to Rediscover American Democracy is not the book I expected.

It is advertised as a followup to Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville’s nine-month tour of America in 1831 that examined why democracy worked here. That trip resulted in the classic two-volume Democracy in America, required reading in political science programs across the United States.

Bernsten’s five-month tour to all 50 states is a lighter look than I expected, but weighs in with answers to serious questions about the direction of America. Are we hopelessly divided? Or are there common threads that bind us? How do Americans really feel?

Bernsten drives his Prius to large cities, small towns and places between. He listens, learns, and relates the stories and moods of Americans, from civic leaders to the homeless. Laughs and entertaining vignettes are included aplenty.

50 States is a story of hope, rooted in the author’s open-minded approach. A member of Hillary Clinton’s campaign staff in the 2016 presidential race, Bernsten hears a plethora of reasons voters were drawn to the Trump campaign. He wonders why more of us don’t listen to folks who have views different from ours.

The book is an adventure story and a report of his personal journey. Traveling on a tight budget, he stays with friends, relatives, and strangers. He couch surfs. A catalogue of his hosts would make interesting reading on its own. He is alone much of the way, but his passenger seat is taken for a while by a prospective love interest. Later, a former college roommate joins him, breaking up times that he admits sometimes turn lonely.

Bernsten studied creative writing at Northwestern University and Oxford University, where he earned a master’s degree. He has won awards as a playwright and is now senior managing editor at The Trevor Project, which works to end suicide among LGBTQ young people.

He admits he was burning out toward the end of his journey, but, as a reader, I wanted him to slow down and conduct more random interviews.

The trip and book were brilliant ideas that convinced Ryan Bernsten and this reader that there are reasons for hope for democracy in America.