Synopses & Reviews
In 1831 Alexis de Tocqueville, a young French aristocrat and ambitious civil servant, made a nine-month journey throughout America. The result was Democracy in America, a monumental study of the life and institutions of the evolving nation. Tocqueville looked to the flourishing democratic system in America as a possible model for post-revolutionary France, believing that the egalitarian ideals it enshrined reflected the spirit of the age and even divine will. His insightful work has become one of the most influential political texts ever written on America and an indispensable authority on democracy.
This new edition is the only one that contains all Tocqueville's writings on America, including the rarely-translated Two Weeks in the Wilderness, an account of Tocqueville's travels in Michigan among the Iroquois, and Excursion to Lake Oneida.
Review:
"No better study of a nation's institutions and culture than Tocqueville's
Democracy in America has ever been written by a foreign observer; none perhaps as good."
The New York TimesSynopsis:
In 1831 Tocqueville set out from post-revolutionary France on a journey across America that would take him nine months and cover 7000 miles. The result was "Democracy in America", a subtle and prescient analysis of the life and institutions of 19th-century America.
Synopsis:
A brilliant new translation of de Tocqueville's masterpiece also includes an account of Tocqueville's travels in Michigan among the Iroquois.
About the Author
Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) was a French sociologist and historian. He was active in law and politics, serving for a time as foreign minister and wrote
L'Ancien Régime, a social and political study of pre-revolutionary France.
Isaac Kramnick is professor of government at Cornell and edited several volumes in the Penguin Classics, including The Federalist Papers.
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