TOCQUEVILLE ON DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA (The Complete Unabridged Critical Edition, Volumes I and II) Alexis de Tocqueville's Masterpiece With Authoritative Commentary on the Text by J.T. Morgan and John Ingalls (NOOKbook Definitive Classics)

by Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville (Created by), Complete Volumes I and II On Democracy in America (Editor), Tocqueville Classics of Sociology (Editor), Required Reading Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge (Compiler)

Overview

TOCQUEVILLE | ON DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA
(The Complete Unabridged Critical Edition, Volumes I and II)
Alexis de Tocqueville's Masterpiece

With Authoritative Commentary on the Text by J.T. Morgan and John Ingalls
(NOOKbook Definitive Classics)


ABOUT DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA

In Democracy in America, published in 1835, Tocqueville wrote of the New World and its burgeoning democratic order. Observing from the perspective of a detached social scientist, Tocqueville wrote of his travels through America in the early 19th century when the market revolution, Western expansion, and Jacksonian democracy were radically transforming the fabric of American life. One purpose of writing Democracy in America, according to Joshua Kaplan, was to help the people of France get a better understanding of their position between a fading aristocratic order and an emerging democratic order, and to help them sort out the confusion.Tocqueville saw democracy as an equation that balanced liberty and equality, concern for the individual as well as the community.


EXCERPT

"Instruct democracy, if possible to reanimate its beliefs, to purify its mores, to regulate its movements, to substitute little by little the science of affairs for its inexperience, and knowledge of its true instincts for its blind instincts; to adapt its government to time and place; to modify it according to circumstances and men: such is the first duty imposed on those who direct society in our day"

Product Details

BN ID:	2940014391191
Publisher:	Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville
Publication date:	05/23/2012
Series:	Tocqueville Democracy in America Classics of Sociology Tocqueville Weber Durkheim , #1
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	911 KB

About the Author

Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville (29 July 1805, Paris – 16 April 1859, Cannes) was a French political thinker and historian best known for his Democracy in America (appearing in two volumes: 1835 and 1840). In his work, 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.

In 1831, he obtained from the July Monarchy a mission to examine prisons in America, and proceeded there with his life-long friend Gustave de Beaumont. While Tocqueville did visit some prisons, he traveled widely in America and took extensive notes about his observations and reflections. He returned in less than two years, and published a report, but the real result of his tour was De la démocratie en Amerique, which appeared in 1835.

An eminent representative of the classical liberal political tradition, Tocqueville was an active participant in French politics, first under the July Monarchy (1830–1848) and then during the Second Republic (1849–1851) which succeeded the February 1848 Revolution. He retired from political life after Louis Napoléon Bonaparte's 2 December 1851 coup.

Editorial Reviews

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

Harvey Mansfield