Alexis de Tocqueville

Alexis de Tocqueville PDF Author: Hugh Brogan
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300108033
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 756

Get Book

Book Description
A comprehensive portrait of the great French political thinker explores his life, work, travels in the United States, and writing of "Democracy in America."

Alexis de Tocqueville

Alexis de Tocqueville PDF Author: Hugh Brogan
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300108033
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 756

Get Book

Book Description
A comprehensive portrait of the great French political thinker explores his life, work, travels in the United States, and writing of "Democracy in America."

The Old Regime and the Revolution

The Old Regime and the Revolution PDF Author: Alexis de Tocqueville
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 364

Get Book

Book Description


Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont in America

Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont in America PDF Author: Alexis de Tocqueville
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780813930626
Category : National characteristics, American
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book

Book Description
A selection of Tocqueville's writings on America together with letters and sketches from his traveling companion, Gustave de Beaumont.

Alexis de Tocqueville: Democracy in America (LOA #147)

Alexis de Tocqueville: Democracy in America (LOA #147) PDF Author: Alexis de Tocqueville
Publisher: Library of America
ISBN: 1598531816
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 960

Get Book

Book Description
An exclusive new translation of the most perceptive and influential book ever written about American politics and society—“the bible on democracy” (The Texas Observer) Alexis de Tocqueville, a young aristocratic French lawyer, came to the United States in 1831 to study its penitentiary systems. His nine-month visit and subsequent reading and reflection resulted in this landmark masterpiece of political observation and analysis. In Democracy in America, Tocqueville vividly describes the unprecedented social equality he found in America and explores its implications for European society in the emerging modern era. His book provides enduring insight into the political consequences of widespread property ownership, the potential dangers to liberty inherent in majority rule, the vital role of religion in American life, and the importance of civil institutions in an individualistic culture dominated by the pursuit of material self-interest. He also probes the deep differences between the free and slave states, writing prophetically of racism, bigotry, and prejudice in the United States. Brought to life by Arthur Goldhammer’s clear, fluid, and vigorous translation, this volume of Democracy in America is the first to fully capture Tocqueville’s achievements both as an accomplished literary stylist and as a profound political thinker.

The Man Who Understood Democracy

The Man Who Understood Democracy PDF Author: Olivier Zunz
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691254141
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 472

Get Book

Book Description
A definitive biography of the French aristocrat who became one of democracy’s greatest champions In 1831, at the age of twenty-five, Alexis de Tocqueville made his fateful journey to America, where he observed the thrilling reality of a functioning democracy. From that moment onward, the French aristocrat would dedicate his life as a writer and politician to ending despotism in his country and bringing it into a new age. In this authoritative and groundbreaking biography, leading Tocqueville expert Olivier Zunz tells the story of a radical thinker who, uniquely charged by the events of his time, both in America and France, used the world as a laboratory for his political ideas. Placing Tocqueville’s dedication to achieving a new kind of democracy at the center of his life and work, Zunz traces Tocqueville’s evolution into a passionate student and practitioner of liberal politics across a trove of correspondence with intellectuals, politicians, constituents, family members, and friends. While taking seriously Tocqueville’s attempts to apply the lessons of Democracy in America to French politics, Zunz shows that the United States, and not only France, remained central to Tocqueville’s thought and actions throughout his life. In his final years, with France gripped by an authoritarian regime and America divided by slavery, Tocqueville feared that the democratic experiment might be failing. Yet his passion for democracy never weakened. Giving equal attention to the French and American sources of Tocqueville’s unique blend of political philosophy and political action, The Man Who Understood Democracy offers the richest, most nuanced portrait yet of a man who, born between the worlds of aristocracy and democracy, fought tirelessly for the only system that he believed could provide both liberty and equality.

Alexis de Tocqueville

Alexis de Tocqueville PDF Author: Joseph Epstein
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061747823
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Get Book

Book Description
Alexis de Tocqueville was among the first foreigners to recognize the potential of a new land called the United States. His classic work Democracy in America, first published in 1835, was not only a vivid portrait of the new nation, but also a startlingly accurate forecast of its future. From the influence of evangelical Christianity to the advent of our “consumer society,” many of de Tocqueville’s predictions have come true. Bestselling author Joseph Epstein revisits de Tocqueville’s legacy, providing a fresh account of his classic travels in America. Epstein explains how de Tocqueville, introverted and prone to self-doubt, arrived at such a profoundly influential interpretation of this new country and its government. Alexis de Tocqueville: Democracy’s Guide is a compelling portrait of the Frenchman who would become an American icon. Joseph Epstein is the author of, among other books, Snobbery: The American Version, Fabulous Small Jews (a collection of stories), Envy, and Friendship: An Exposé. He was the editor of The American Scholar between 1974 and 1997, and for many years taught in the English Department at Northwestern University. His essays and stories have appeared in the New Yorker, Commentary, the Atlantic Monthly, and other magazines.

Alexis de Tocqueville on Democracy, Revolution, and Society

Alexis de Tocqueville on Democracy, Revolution, and Society PDF Author: Alexis de Tocqueville
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226805271
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 402

Get Book

Book Description
Alexis de Tocqueville possessed one of the most fertile sociological imaginations of the nineteenth century. For more than 120 years, his uncanny predictive insight has continued to fascinate thinkers, and his writings have continued to influence our interpretations of history and society. His analyses of many issues remain relevant to current social and political problems. In this volume John Stone and Stephen Mennell bring together for the first time selections from the full range of Tocqueville's writings, selections that illustrate the depth of his insight and analysis.

Democracy in America (Complete)

Democracy in America (Complete) PDF Author: Alexis de Tocqueville
Publisher: Library of Alexandria
ISBN: 1613105002
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1320

Get Book

Book Description
Amongst the novel objects that attracted my attention during my stay in the United States, nothing struck me more forcibly than the general equality of conditions. I readily discovered the prodigious influence which this primary fact exercises on the whole course of society, by giving a certain direction to public opinion, and a certain tenor to the laws; by imparting new maxims to the governing powers, and peculiar habits to the governed. I speedily perceived that the influence of this fact extends far beyond the political character and the laws of the country, and that it has no less empire over civil society than over the Government; it creates opinions, engenders sentiments, suggests the ordinary practices of life, and modifies whatever it does not produce. The more I advanced in the study of American society, the more I perceived that the equality of conditions is the fundamental fact from which all others seem to be derived, and the central point at which all my observations constantly terminated. I then turned my thoughts to our own hemisphere, where I imagined that I discerned something analogous to the spectacle which the New World presented to me. I observed that the equality of conditions is daily progressing towards those extreme limits which it seems to have reached in the United States, and that the democracy which governs the American communities appears to be rapidly rising into power in Europe. I hence conceived the idea of the book which is now before the reader. It is evident to all alike that a great democratic revolution is going on amongst us; but there are two opinions as to its nature and consequences. To some it appears to be a novel accident, which as such may still be checked; to others it seems irresistible, because it is the most uniform, the most ancient, and the most permanent tendency which is to be found in history. Let us recollect the situation of France seven hundred years ago, when the territory was divided amongst a small number of families, who were the owners of the soil and the rulers of the inhabitants; the right of governing descended with the family inheritance from generation to generation; force was the only means by which man could act on man, and landed property was the sole source of power. Soon, however, the political power of the clergy was founded, and began to exert itself: the clergy opened its ranks to all classes, to the poor and the rich, the villein and the lord; equality penetrated into the Government through the Church, and the being who as a serf must have vegetated in perpetual bondage took his place as a priest in the midst of nobles, and not infrequently above the heads of kings. The different relations of men became more complicated and more numerous as society gradually became more stable and more civilized. Thence the want of civil laws was felt; and the order of legal functionaries soon rose from the obscurity of the tribunals and their dusty chambers, to appear at the court of the monarch, by the side of the feudal barons in their ermine and their mail. Whilst the kings were ruining themselves by their great enterprises, and the nobles exhausting their resources by private wars, the lower orders were enriching themselves by commerce. The influence of money began to be perceptible in State affairs. The transactions of business opened a new road to power, and the financier rose to a station of political influence in which he was at once flattered and despised. Gradually the spread of mental acquirements, and the increasing taste for literature and art, opened chances of success to talent; science became a means of government, intelligence led to social power, and the man of letters took a part in the affairs of the State. The value attached to the privileges of birth decreased in the exact proportion in which new paths were struck out to advancement. In the eleventh century nobility was beyond all price; in the thirteenth it might be purchased; it was conferred for the first time in 1270; and equality was thus introduced into the Government by the aristocracy itself.

Democracy in America (Abridged)

Democracy in America (Abridged) PDF Author: Alexis de Tocqueville
Publisher: Hackett Publishing
ISBN: 9780872204942
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 376

Get Book

Book Description
This new abridged translation of Democracy in America reflects the rich Tocqueville scholarship of the past forty years, and restores chapters central to Tocqueville's analysis absent from previous abridgments -- including his discussions of enlightened self-interest and the public's influence on ethical standards. Judicious notes and a thoughtful introduction offer aids to the understanding of a masterpiece of nineteenth-century social thought that continues in our own day to illuminate debates about the roles of liberty and equality in American life.

Journey to America

Journey to America PDF Author: Alexis de Tocqueville
Publisher: Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press
ISBN: 9780313227127
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 424

Get Book

Book Description
Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) visited the United States in 1831 as an assistant magistrate of the French government. His great work Democracy in America was published in 1835. This volume contains all of the notebooks Tocqueville kept during his American journey.