On Tocqueville: Democracy and America (Liveright Classics)

n On Tocqueville, Alan Ryan brilliantly illuminates the observations of the French sociologist Alexis de Tocqueville, who first journeyed to the United States in 1831 and went on to catalog the unique features of the American social contract in his two-volume masterpiece, Democracy in America. Often thought of as the father of American Exceptionalism, Tocqueville sought to observe the social conditions of emerging political equality in America, a river that may be channeled but cannot be stopped in its course. In choosing America, he posed a central question of how a moderate, stable, and constitutional government is to be maintained in the wake of a revolution. As a dispassionate visitor, Tocqueville wanted to discover the social, moral, and economic arrangements that made liberty and self-government possible.

by : Alan Ryan |