Alexis de Tocqueville 
Democracy in America (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading) 
Volumes I and II

Written nearly 170 years ago,
Democracy in America is a masterful display of insight and foresight into all things American. Doubting whether the American experiment in equality could work, Tocqueville conjectured that democracy would erect a society that would succumb to a different type of tyranny than that of a monarchy or aristocracy – that of the majority. Through detailed interviews with ‘the most informed men’ he could meet, he offers an examination of American institutions and the fabric of American life.

Circa l’autore

Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) worked first as a magistrate and then as a government administrator. Because he fell out of political favor due to his perceived Bourbon sympathies during the July Revolution, he was required to fund his nine-month visit to America himself, even though he was ostensibly coming to complete a survey of the American penal system on behalf of the French government. When Tocqueville arrived in America in May of 1831 he was far more interested in his own questions about Americas political future, and
Democracy in America is the result of extensive personal research on the subject.