Journeys to England and Ireland

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0887387160 ISBN 13: 9780887387166

Publisher: Routledge, 1987

This extraordinary series of observations on England and Ireland complements de Tocqueville's masterpieces on the United States and France in the mid-nineteenth century. These pages are perhaps the most penetrating writings on the spirit of British politics. In effect, as indicated by John Stuart Mill, de Tocqueville was the Montesquieu of the nineteenth century. This is especially the case if one thinks of the present Irish situation. His political acumen reached into the future -which is now our present.

Language Notes:

Text: English, French (translation)

Review:

“...a tireless observer, and one of unparalleled brilliance and prescience, with a remarkable ability to draw strangers to serious talk. Here, in visits of a few months, he manages to see and describe more of the essence of English character, society and politics—as well as that bottomless pit, the Irish problem, than most others have in a lifetime.”

—The New Yorker

"If de Tocqueville were a contemporary writer we could say simply that he has done it again. This modest-sized book on his journeys in England and Ireland, although naturally lacking the structure of the works on Democracy in America and The Old Regime and the French Revolution is one with them in quality. Generalities only hint at the rich and rewarding reading in this volume. The particulars not only support the thesis, they are often in themselves based on such profound observation as to open for the contemporary reader many fresh roads of thought about problems most subtly besieging the strongholds of liberty today."

—Christian Science Monitor.