Tocqueville: The Aristocratic Sources of Liberty

A major intellectual biography of Toqueville that restores democracy in America to its essential context

Many American readers like to regard Alexis de Tocqueville as an honorary American and democrat—as the young French aristocrat who came to early America and, enthralled by what he saw, proceeded to write an American book explaining democratic America to itself. Yet, as Lucien Jaume argues in this acclaimed intellectual biography, Democracy in America is best understood as a French book, w...