Democracy in America (2 vols.)

by Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville

Publisher:

Sever and Francis

, 1864

Overview

In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont were commissioned by the French government to study America’s prison system. The two took a nine-month tour of the country studying prisons, but also the character of American religion, politics, and society. Tocqueville noted the lack of regard for social class, the high regard for labor, and the equality of economic opportunity. Two years later they’d published their official report on penitentiaries, but it was Tocqueville’s Democracy in America the stores could not keep in stock.

In Democracy in America, Tocqueville examines why democracy flourished in America, while having disastrous effects elsewhere. Tocqueville admires the American constitution, but gives most of the credit to American “habits of mind.” He credits America’s Puritan foundations for creating a climate of equality, with a dominant middle class and an emphasis on religious and political liberty. Throughout the massive work, Tocqueville becomes the first to identify the ideology of separate spheres for men and women, and he makes many accurate predictions about slavery and industry—anticipating both the Civil War between North and South, and the Cold War between Russia and the United States.

Marking a new era of social science, Tocqueville’s classic work is a necessity in the library of any student of politics, sociology, or history.

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Key Features

• Examines the history of American politics, economics, civil society, and family structure
• Keystone text in political science, sociology, and history
• Classic 1835 translation by Henry Reeve

Top Highlights

“American institutions as affording the most instructive lessons for the organization and conduct of the new French republic.” (Volume 1, Page iii)

Praise for the Print Edition

At once the best book ever written on democracy and the best book ever written on America.

—Harvey Mansfield, William R. Kenan Jr., Professor of Government, Harvard

Product Details

• Title: Democracy in America
• Author: Alexis de Tocqueville
• Translator: Henry Reeve
• Edition: Fourth
• Publisher: Sever and Francis
• Volumes: 2
• Pages: 1,094

About Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville

Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville was a French political thinker and historian best known for his Democracy in America and The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856). In both of these works, he explored the effects of the rising equality of social conditions on the individual and the state in western societies. Democracy in America (1835), his major work, published after his travels in the United States, is today considered an early work of sociology and political science.