Alexis de Tocqueville

The abridged edition of the enduring masterwork—a classic portrait of America's culture and people. Originally penned in the mid-nineteenth century by Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America remains the most comprehensive, penetrating, and astute picture of American life, politics, and morals ever written, as relevant today as when it first appeared in print nearly two hundred years ago. This abridged edition by scholar and historian Scott A. Sandage includes a new introduction and editorial notes, and offers students and the general reader alike easy access to the preeminent translation by George Lawrence, widely recognized as the best translation based on the second revised and corrected text of the 1961 French edition, edited by J. P. Mayer.

Originally penned in the mid-eighteenth century by Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America remains one of the most penetrating and astute picture of American life, politics, and morals ever written, as relevant today as when it first appeared in print nearly two hundred years ago. This edition, based on the revised and corrected text of the 1961 French edition and meticulously edited by the distinguished de Tocqueville scholar J. P. Mayer, is widely recognized as the preeminent translation.

The book analyzes French society before the French Revolution — the so-called "Ancien Régime" — and investigates the causes and forces that brought about the Revolution. It is one of the major early historical works on the French Revolution.

Out of Alex de Tocqueville's travels through the U.S. in the 1830's came an insightful study of a young democracy and its institutions. This 2 volume edition presents Tocqueville's original text. Footnotes, bibliography.

Volume 2 of the classic commentary on the influence of democracy on the intellect, feelings, and actions of Americans. With an introduction by Phillips Bradley.

Fransız hukukçu, düşünür ve tarihçi Tocqueville, 1830’lu yılların başında Amerika Birleşik Devletleri’ne uzun bir seyahat yapar. Amerikan demokrasisi, siyasal sistemi ve toplumsal yapısı hakkındaki bu “saha çalışması” boyunca yaptığı gözlemlerine dayanan görüş ve çözümlemelerini, 1835 ve 1840 yıllarında iki cilt halinde yayımlanan ve siyaset bilimi literatürünün kanonik eserlerinden biri haline gelen Amerika’da Demokrasi adlı çalışmasıyla kitaplaştırır.Çoğunluğun Zorbalığı bu kitaptan seçilmiş bölümlerden oluşuyor. Tocqueville bu metinlerde, modern demokrasilerin ayırıcı özelliği olan eşitlik tutkusunun özgürlüğü tehdit eder hale gelebileceğini ve sonunun çoğunluğun tiranlığına varabileceğini ileri sürer. Amerika’da çoğunluğun sınırsız gücünün halkın düşünceleri, ulusun karakteri ve kamu yönetimi üzerindeki etkilerini çözümler.

Fransız hukukçu, düşünür ve tarihçi Alexis de Tocqueville’in 1835 ve 1840’ta iki cilt halinde yayımlanan Amerika’da Demokrasi başlıklı çalışması, siyaset bilimi literatürünün kanonik eserlerinden biridir. Demokratik Zorbalık kitabı, Amerika’da Demokrasi’nin “Demokratik Duyguların ve Düşüncelerin Siyasal Topluma Etkisi Üzerine” başlıklı dördüncü ve son bölümünden oluşuyor. Tocqueville, bu ülkenin toplumsal yapısı ve genç Amerikan demokrasisinin siyasal sistemi üzerine yaptığı gözlem ve incelemeler ışığında “yaşlı Avrupa”da yaşanan siyasi gelişmeler, kamu yönetimi sistemleri, güncel sorunlar ve çözüm yolları üzerine karşılaştırmalı bir çözümlemeye girişir.Düşüncesinin temel eksenini liberalizmin ön plana çıkardığı özgürlükle, sosyalizmin temel aldığı eşitlik kavramları arasında bir denge kurma çabası oluşturur. Tocqueville'in o dönemde ortaya attığı sivil toplum destekli katılımcı demokrasi modeli, çağdaş demokrasi anlayışının kurucu öğelerinden biridir.Yazarın bu katkıları, çağdaş demokrasilerin yaşadığı sorunlarla yeniden güncellik kazanmıştır. Tocqueville’in düşüncesinin ana unsurlarını özetleyen bu kitap, bugün belki çok kullanılmaktan içi boşalmış bazı kavramların kökenini hatırlatarak günceli anlamlandırmamıza ve güncel sorunlarla ilgili tartışmalara katkıda bulunacaktır.

Tocqueville was not only an active participant in the French Revolution of 1848, he was also a deeply perceptive observer with a detached attitude of mind. He saw the pitfalls of the course his country was taking more clearly than any of his contemporaries, including Karl Marx. Recollections was first written for self-clarification. It is both an exciting, candid, behind-the-scenes account of what actually happened during those tumultuous months and a remarkably shrewd analysis that has become an accurate forecast of future societies wrestling with the dilemma of synthesizing equality and freedom. Thus the book has a relevance that extends beyond France, to our own country and others, a relevance that is explored in J.P. Mayer's new introduction. Out of print in English for several years, Recollections is presented here in a translation based on the definitive French edition of 1964. It captures the wit and subtlety of mind that have made this book one of the most popular of all Tocqueville's works. Tocqueville's own comments, which he wrote into the manuscript, including his variants, are given, and the editors have added explanatory notes.

This look at Alexis de Tocqueville's 1831 travels to the United States with his friend and colleague Gustave de Beaumont gives us a glimpse into the colonization of the United States. Weaving together the story of early American society with the inevitable destruction of both its natural landscapes and the natives that inhabited them, this text deals with contemporary themes of human concern for nature's fragility and the capacity to transform surroundings.

[L]egal charity has not only taken freedom of movement from the English poor but also from those who are threatened by poverty. -from "Memoir on Pauperism" Inspired by a trip to England at a time when that nation was in the throes of political, social, and economic strife and poverty was rampant, political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville developed his theories on civil society as it relates to its poorest members and set them down in this 1835 essay. With keen insight, he . why the richest nations have the most paupers . why private charity is more likely to alleviate poverty than government aid . how good intentions backfire to produce a chronically dependent underclass. The political and economic situations Tocqueville examines are immediately recognizable as one that haunts the world's richest nations today, and his lessons are still to be learned. This is an important book for our unsteady times. Also available from Cosimo Tocqueville's Selected Letters on Politics and Society. French writer ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE (1805-1859) was born in Paris and practiced law before embarking on travels in America to study the young nation's political experiment. The result, the two-volume Democracy in America (1835, 1840), is considered a classic discourse on 19th-century America.

Young Alexis de Tocqueville arrived in the United States for the first time in May 1831, commissioned by the French government to study the American prison system. For the next nine months he and his companion, Gustave de Beaumont, traveled and observed not only prisons but also the political, economic, and social systems of the early republic. Along the way, they frequently reported back to friends and family members in France. This book presents the first translation of the complete letters Tocqueville wrote during that seminal journey, accompanied by excerpts from Beaumont’s correspondence that provide details or different perspectives on the places, people, and American life and attitudes the travelers encountered. These delightful letters provide an intimate portrait of the complicated, talented Tocqueville, who opened himself without prejudice to the world of Jacksonian America. Moreover, they contain many of the impressions and ideas that served as preliminary sketches for Democracy in America , his classic account of the American democratic system that remains an important reference work to this day. Accessible, witty, and charming, the letters Tocqueville penned while in America are of major interest to general readers, scholars, and students alike.

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

In 1831 Tocqueville set out from post-revolutionary France on a journey across America that would take him 9 months and cover 7,000 miles. The result was DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA: a subtle and prescient analysis of the life and institutions of 19th-century America. Tocqueville's study of the strengths and weaknesses of an evolving democratic society has been quoted by every American president since Eisenhower. It remains a key point of reference for any discussion of the American nation or the democratic system.

No better study of a nation's institutions and culture than Tocqueville's Democracy in America has ever been written by a foreign observer; none perhaps as good." —New York TimesRichard D. Heffner, historian, radio and television commentator, and author of A Documentary History of the United States , has selected Tocqueville's most striking and pertinent passages to make this masterful political critique available in a compact, inexpensive edition for the modern reader.

This new edition of Democracy in America makes Tocqueville’s classic nineteenth-century study of American politics, society, and culture available — finally! — in a brief and accessible version. Designed for instructors who are eager to teach the work but reluctant to assign all 700 plus pages, Kammen’s careful abridgment features the most well-known chapters that by scholarly consensus are most representative of Tocqueville’s thinking on a wide variety of issues. A comprehensive introduction provides historical and intellectual background, traces the author’s journey in America, helps students unpack the meaning behind key Tocquevillian concepts like "individualism," "equality," and "tyranny of the majority," and discusses the work’s reception and legacy. Newly translated, this edition offers instructors a convenient and affordable option for exploring this essential work with their students. Useful pedagogic features include a chronology, questions for consideration, a selected bibliography, illustrations, and an index.Democracy in America: Abridged with an Introduction by Michael Kammen

The Old Regime and the Revolution is Alexis de Tocqueville's great meditation on the origins and meanings of the French Revolution. One of the most profound and influential studies of this pivotal event, it remains a relevant and stimulating discussion of the problem of preserving individual and political freedom in the modern world. Alan Kahan's translation provides a faithful, readable rendering of Tocqueville's last masterpiece, and includes notes and variants which reveal Tocqueville's sources and include excerpts from his drafts and revisions. The introduction by France's most eminent scholars of Tocqueville and the French Revolution, Françoise Mélonio and the late François Furet, provides a brilliant analysis of the work.

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.

After completing his research for Democracy in America , Alexis de Tocqueville turned to the French consolidation of its empire in North Africa, which he believed deserving of similar attention. Tocqueville began studying Algerian history and culture, making two trips to Algeria in 1841 and 1846. He quickly became one of France's foremost experts on the country and wrote essays, articles, official letters, and parliamentary reports on such diverse topics as France's military and administrative policies in North Africa, the people of the Maghrib, his own travels in Algeria, and the practice of Islam. Throughout, Tocqueville consistently defended the French imperial project, a position that stands in tension with his admiration for the benefits of democracy he witnessed in America. Although Tocqueville never published a book-length study of French North Africa, his various writings on the subject provide as invaluable a portrait of French imperialism as Democracy in America does of the Early Republic period in American history. In Writings on Empire and Slavery , Jennifer Pitts has selected and translated nine of his most important dispatches on Algeria, which offer startling new insights into both Tocqueville's political thought and French liberalism's attitudes toward the political, military, and moral aspects of France's colonial expansion. The volume also includes six articles Tocqueville wrote during the same period calling for the emancipation of slaves in France's Caribbean colonies.

English (translation)Original French

As debates rage over the future of America and the country's relationship to its past, there is no better time to examine the American culture from the perspective of a nineteenth century French thinker and student of democracy. Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, written in French in the early 19th century, is seen as a classic of American political and cultural studies. However, the expansive 2--volume original has never seen an accessible version that remains true to the original text. This new abridgement of Francis Bowen's 1864 translation keeps Tocqueville's thought intact. All chapters have been retained and no sentences have been divided. This volume offers a clear window into American political history and a concise approach to this classic outsider's perspective on the United States. A new introduction by editor John D. Wilsey further interprets and applies Tocqueville's thought for the modern student of American institutions, politics, religion, and society.

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.

Du voyage en Amérique qu’il effectue au début des années 1830, Tocqueville tire ce qui deviendra, dans la riche littérature politique du XIXe siècle, l’une des œuvres les plus lues et les plus commentées. Car l’étude des institutions de la jeune république américaine lui inspire une véritable philosophie de la démocratie, toujours nuancée et souvent visionnaire.Comment accorder l’égalité et la liberté, exigence centrale pour un régime démocratique ? Quels sont les effets pervers de ce système politique et les moyens de s’en prémunir ? Les réponses de Tocqueville à ces questions essentielles n’ont cessé de nourrir les réflexions des générations ultérieures, jusqu’à trouver leurs prolongements dans les débats citoyens d’aujourd’hui.Dossier :1. Sur les valeurs d’égalité, de fraternité et de souveraineté2. Les perversions de la société démocratique : entre désordre et uniformisation3. L’exercice du pouvoir démocratique : tyrannie de la majorité et despotisme pastoral4. Les remèdes à la centralisation.

Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville (1805 – 1859) was a French political thinker and historian best known for his works Democracy in America (appearing in two 1835 and 1840). In both he analyzed the improved living standards and social conditions of individuals, as well as their relationship to the market and state in Western societies. In this Democracy In America, Volume 1 (of 2) Democracy In America, Volume 2 (of 2) The Recollections of Alexis de Tocqueville

The collection includes new translations of Tocqueville's works, including the first English translation of his Second Memoir , the original Memoir , a letter fragment considering pauperism in Normandy, and the ‘‘Pauperism in America’’ index to the Penitentiary Report. Alexis de Tocqueville was one of the most important thinkers of the nineteenth century, and his thought continues to influence contemporary political and social discourse. In Memoirs on Pauperism and Other Writings , Christine Dunn Henderson brings all of Tocqueville’s writings on poverty together for the first a new translation of his original Memoir and the first English translation of his unfinished Second Memoir , as well as his letter considering pauperism in Normandy and the ‘‘Pauperism in America’’ appendix to his Penitentiary Report . By uniting these texts in a single volume, Henderson makes possible a deeper exploration of Tocqueville’s thought as it pertains to questions of inequality and public assistance. As Henderson shows in her introduction to this collection, Tocqueville provides no easy blueprint for fixing these problems, which remain pressing today. Still, Tocqueville’s writings speak eloquently about these issues, and his own unsuccessful struggle to find solutions remains both a spur to creative thinking today and a caution against attempting to find simplistic remedies. Memoirs on Pauperism and Other Writings allows us to study his sustained thought on pauperism, poverty assistance, governmental assistance programs, and social inequality in a new and deeper way. The insights in these works are important not only for what they tell us about Tocqueville but also for how they help us to think about contemporary social challenges. This collection will be essential not only to students and scholars of Tocqueville’s thought, nineteenth-century France, and political economy, but also to all those interested in the issues of public assistance, associative life, voluntary associations, and charities.

Cet ouvrage inclut l’ensemble des observations qu’Alexis de Tocqueville a rédigées sur la nation française nord-américaine lors de son voyage en terroitoire nord-américain, au mois d’août de 1831. Tocqueville annonce son intention de faire ce qu’il décrit comme “le voyage à la mode dans ce pays-ci” vers la région du Niagara. Il précise : “Le Canada pique vivement notre curiosité. La nation française s’y est conservée intacte : on y a les mœurs et on y parle la langue du siècle de Louis XIV.”

¿Es la igualdad social compatible con la libertad política? El título de la presente antología pone de relieve la asombrosa actualidad de Tocqueville y resume la cuestión fundamental que recorre toda su obra. La selección que presentamos sigue un orden cronológico, en el que cada capítulo se acompaña de textos introductorios, ilustrados con la correspondencia de Tocqueville y los testimonios de sus contemporáneos. Naturalmente, el grueso de la obra está compuesto por La democracia en América y El Antiguo Régimen y la Revolución. Sin embargo, junto a Quince días en el desierto, Memorias del pauperismo, Recuerdos de la revolución de 1848, los discursos y escritos políticos y la mencionada correspondencia, se citan íntegramente dos textos: El estado social y político de Francia antes y después de 1789 y el discurso sobre el derecho al trabajo, pronunciado en la Asamblea Nacional en 1848.Tocqueville radiografía nuestra época con una lucidez y una precisión admirables. Gracias a sus excepcionales cualidades de observador, a su capacidad para discernir lo esencial y a su genio visionario, que plasmó en páginas no exentas de pasión y de belleza literaria, encontramos en sus escritos el reflejo de nuestra sociedad.«En el horizonte se alza un poder inmenso y tutelar […]. Se asemejaría a la autoridad paterna si, como esta, tuviese por objeto preparar a los hombres para la edad adulta, pero en realidad no persigue sino mantenerlos irremediablemente en la infancia.»«Creo que habría amado la libertad en cualquier época, pero en los tiempos que corremos me siento inclinado a adorarla. Sin embargo, estoy convencido de que, en los tiempos que se avecinan, todos los que traten de apoyar la libertad sobre los privilegios y la aristocracia fracasarán estrepitosamente […]. Así pues, no se trata en absoluto de reconstruir una sociedad aristocrática, sino de hacer surgir la libertad en el seno de una sociedad democrática.»

El viaje de nueve meses que realizara en 1831 Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) a través de Estados Unidos en busca de información sobre las reformas del sistema penitenciario norteamericano inspiró una de las más importantes obras de teoría política y de interpretación histórica de la época contemporánea. "La democracia en América" es un libro clásico gracias a la peculiar combinación de observaciones precisas, generalizaciones audaces e intuiciones geniales mediante las que el autor supo captar las grandes tendencias que configurarían la sociedad burguesa del futuro. Publicado en 1835, el primer volumen consagró a Tocqueville como el «heredero lógico de Montesquieu». El segundo, aparecido en 1840, reflexiona acerca de la influencia de la democracia sobre el movimiento intelectual, los sentimientos y las costumbres de los norteamericanos, realizando una caracterización general de la civilización igualitaria.

This volume contains two of Alexis de Tocqueville’s best-loved “A Visit to Lake Oneida” and “A Fortnight in the Wilderness”. Rather than considering politics and culture as he did in his famous work, Democracy in America, in these essays de Tocqueville reports on his travels in the wilds of the northeastern USA. He considers nature, the environment and how they are changing. Through the accounts of this famous Frenchman, we are given a rare insight into the colonization of the USA in the 1830s.Short footnotes have been added to give some background information on places and people referred to in the text.

For use in schools and libraries only. A study of America's national government, egalitarian ideals, and character offers reflections on the effect of majority rule on the rights of individuals and provides insight into the rewards and responsibilities of a democratic government, in a new tra

En 1841, lorsque Tocqueville se rend pour la première fois en Algérie, l'occupation française dure depuis onze ans. Cette guerre coûteuse mobilise des effectifs militaires importants et divise le camp politique : certains exigent le retrait des troupes françaises, d'autres préconisent une occupation limitée, d'autres enfin sont en faveur de l'extension de la domination et de la colonisation des territoires occupés.Tocqueville, qui a déjà constitué une abondante documentation sur l'Algérie, est nommé membre d'une commission extraordinaire : il part enquêter sur place, en 1841 et 1846, parcourt le pays, visite les villages, et rencontre les principaux acteurs français sur le terrain. Dans les textes relatifs à ces voyages présentés ici, Tocqueville se prononce pour la colonisation, quel que soit son prix : razzias et tribunaux d'exception lui paraissent en effet relever du droit de la guerre. Longtemps ignorés, ces textes sont un outil précieux pour comprendre l'histoire de la colonisation française en Algérie.