Democracy in America - Softcover

Alexis De Tocqueville

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060956666 ISBN 13: 9780060956660

Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2000

Synopsis

Tocqueville's monumental book is as relevant today as when it was first published in the mid-nineteenth century, and it remains the most comprehensive, penetrating, and astute picture of American life, politics, and morals ever written -- whether by an American or, as in this case, a foreign visitor. This special edition contains the entire two volumes of Democracy in America, based on the second revised and corrected text of the 1961 French edition, meticulously edited by the distinguished Tocqueville scholar J.P. Mayer.

About this title

Review:

As Alexis de Tocqueville traveled through the young United States, he wrote in his introduction to the first volume of Democracy in America, "the more clearly I saw equality of conditions as the creative element from which each particular fact derived, and all my observations constantly returned to this nodal point." And there is an abundance of observations to be found here, with chapters that consider everything from "judicial power in the United States and its effect on political society" to "why the Americans erect some pretty monuments and others that are very grand."

Why does Tocqueville remain one of the most insightful analysts of American society? Certainly there is the comprehensive nature of his project, but one must also take into account the brilliance of his prose, with just the right balance of elegance and clarity. Democracy in America is as accessible to the modern reader as the work of any contemporary journalist, political scientist, or sociologist--and in many cases more so. It is an essential volume for anybody concerned with American history.

About the Author:

Alexis De Tocqueville was born in 1805 in Paris.At the age of twenty-five, he visited the United States, and his experiences there would later become the basis for his classic study Democracy in America.He died in 1859.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0060956666
• ISBN 13: 9780060956660
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 778
• Editor: J.P. Mayer