Alexis de Tocqueville

hugh brogan

Alexis de Tocqueville was one of the greatest political thinkers of all time. Born a French aristocrat, he lost nearly his entire family in the Reign of Terror, and he spent most of his adult life struggling for liberty under the unsuccessful regimes of nineteenth-century France.

At age twenty-five he travelled to America and encountered democracy for the first time. This firsthand experience contributed to his incisive writing on liberty and democracy. The ancien régime launched the scholarly study of the French Revolution, and Democracy in America remains the best book ever written by a European about the United States. This is a brilliant account of his life.

Genres biographyhistorynonfictionpoliticsphilosophyamerican historyfrance

736 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1,2006

Literary awards

orwell prize,

This edition

Format: 736 pages, Hardcover
Published: March 28, 2007 by Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300108033
ASIN: 0300108036
Language: English

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Alexis De Tocqueville

Alexis de Tocqueville

Alexis Charles Henri Clérel, comte de Tocqueville, usually known as just Tocqueville, was a French aristocrat, diplomat, sociologist, political scientist, political philosopher, and historian. He is best known for his works Democracy in America (appearing...