A New Abridgement of a Classic on the American Experiment.

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.

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.

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 explains: . 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 Classics: 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.

Democracy in America examines the democratic revolution Tocqueville believed had been occurring over the previous several hundred years. The primary focus of the book is an analysis of why republican representative democracy has succeeded in the United States while failing in so many other places. Tocqueville seeks to apply the functional aspects of democracy in the United States to what he sees as the failings of democracy in his native France.

Democracy in America was published in two volumes, the first in 1835 and the other in 1840. It was immediately popular in both Europe and the United States, while also having a profound impact on the French population. By the twentieth century, it had become a classic work of political science, social science, and history. It is a commonly assigned reading for students at American universities majoring in the political or social sciences, and part of the introductory political theory syllabus at Cambridge, Oxford, Princeton and other institutions.

Nothing is more wonderful than the art of being free, but nothing is harder to learn how to use than freedom. -Alexis de Tocqueville

Alexis de Tocqueville's four-volume Democracy in America is commonly said to be among the most comprehensive and insightful books ever written about the United States and the greatest works of nineteenth-century political writing.

With its trenchant observations on equality and individualism, Tocqueville's work remains a valuable explanation of America to Europeans and of Americans to themselves. Tocqueville reminds us in Democracy in America that the core principle of democracy is the public commitment to equality among its citizens.

Tocqueville writes, The nations of our day cannot prevent conditions of equality from spreading in their midst. But it depends upon themselves whether equality is to lead to servitude or freedom, knowledge or barbarism, prosperity or wretchedness. Tocqueville's hope is that through the insights he has communicated in this work, humanity will be better able direct themselves toward freedom, knowledge and prosperity.

Democracy was the most successful political idea of the 20th century. Why has it run into trouble, and what can be done to revive it? Do we not have to thank Alexis de Tocqueville for warning us that they may well be the future of democracy?

Complete Four-Book Edition with Footnotes and Appendix.

Included: Constitution Of The United States Of America - United States Bill of Rights.

Democracy in America examines the democratic revolution Tocqueville believed had been occurring over the previous several hundred years. The primary focus of the book is an analysis of why republican representative democracy has succeeded in the United States while failing in so many other places. Tocqueville seeks to apply the functional aspects of democracy in the United States to what he sees as the failings of democracy in his native France.

Democracy in America was published in two volumes, the first in 1835 and the other in 1840. It was immediately popular in both Europe and the United States, while also having a profound impact on the French population. By the twentieth century, it had become a classic work of political science, social science, and history. It is a commonly assigned reading for students at American universities majoring in the political or social sciences, and part of the introductory political theory syllabus at Cambridge, Oxford, Princeton and other institutions.

This case laminate collector's edition includes a Victorian inspired dust-jacket.

A timeless exploration of the American democratic experiment, Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville offers a profound analysis of the strengths and vulnerabilities of democracy. Insightful and prescient, it remains an essential read for understanding the principles and challenges of democratic governance.

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.

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 classic analysis of America's unique political character is quoted heavily by politicians and perennially pops up on history professors' reading lists.

The enduring appeal of Democracy in America lies in the eloquent, prophetic voice of Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859), a French aristocrat who visited the United States in 1831. A thoughtful young man in a still-young country, he succeeded in penning this penetrating study of America's people, culture, history, geography, politics, legal system, and economy.

Tocqueville asserts, I confess that in America I saw more than America; I sought the image of democracy itself, with its inclinations, its character, its prejudices, and its passions, in order to learn what we have to fear or hope from its progress.

As Bruce Frohnen notes in his introduction to this edition, this republication of Henry Reeve's important translation beautifully showcases one of the world's greatest achievements in political philosophy.

2017 Reprint of 1856 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition software. In this work de Tocqueville analyzes French society before the French Revolution--the so-called Ancien Regime--and investigates the forces that caused the Revolution. It is one of the major early historical works on the French Revolution. De Tocqueville develops his main theory about the French revolution, the theory of continuity, in which he states that even though the French tried to dissociate themselves from the past and from the autocratic old regime, they eventually reverted to a powerful central government, in the form of Napoleon.

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.

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 explains: . 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 Classics: 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.

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 time: 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.

Le premier tome de De la d mocratie en Am rique, publi en 1835, est compos de deux parties. La premi re est un expos sur les institutions et les lois aux Etats-Unis: elle a beaucoup vieilli en raison du renforcement du pouvoir f d ral apr s la guerre de S cession et, surtout, apr s la crise des ann es 30. La deuxi me partie s'attache montrer comment le peuple gouverne et le r le des moeurs (l' tat moral et intellectuel d'un peuple) dans le maintien de la d mocratie en Am rique.

The first English-language edition published in 1838 and translated by Henry Reeve, Esq. with Preface and notes by John C. Spencer. This landmark work initiated a dialogue about the nature of democracy and the United States and its people that continues to this day. In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville 1805-1859] and Gustave de Beaumont fl.1835] traveled through the United States on behalf of the French government to study American prisons, which were renowned for their progressive and humane methods. They were pleased to accept this assignment because they were intrigued by the idea of American democracy. Tocqueville and Beaumont spent nine months in the country, traveling as far west as Michigan and as far south as New Orleans. Throughout the tour, Tocqueville used his social connections to arrange meetings with several prominent and influential thinkers of the day. Tocqueville recorded his thoughts on the structure of the government and the judicial system, and commented on everyday people and the nation's political culture and social institutions. His observations on slavery, in particular, are impassioned and critical. These notes formed the basis of Democracy in America.

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. This 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.

Le second tome de De la d mocratie en Am rique, publi en 1840, est une r flexion sur les formes particuli res de la d mocratie am ricaine. Cette r flexion s' largit des consid rations g n rales sur la d mocratie, notamment le risque de tyrannie de la majorit . L'oeuvre traite de l'influence que la d mocratie exerce sur la soci t civile, c'est- -dire sur les moeurs, les id es et la vie intellectuelle. Tocqueville sp cula sur le futur de la d mocratie aux tats-Unis, et sur des dangers potentiels la d mocratie ainsi que des dangers de la d mocratie . Il crivit de la d mocratie qu'elle a une tendance d g n rer en ce qu'il d crivit comme le despotisme mou . Il observa aussi que le seul r le que put jouer la religion tait d sa s paration du gouvernement, permettant un pays la que convenant aux deux partis.