Part of: Democracy in America. English Edition. 2 vols. Democracy in America. English Edition. Vol. 2.

Volume 2 of a two volume English only version of Liberty Fund’s 4 volume bi-lingual critical edition. In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville and his friend Gustave de Beaumont visited the United States. From Tocqueville’s copious notes of what he had seen and heard came the classic text De la Démocratie en Amérique, published in two large volumes, the first in 1835, the second in 1840. The first volume focused primarily on political society; the second, on civil society.

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Citation

Democracy in America. English Edition. Edited by Eduardo Nolla. Translated from the French by James T. Schleifer. (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2012). Vol. 2.

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Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Author)

Rousseau was a French social contract theorist whose political writings greatly impacted Tocqueville.
Voltaire (Author)

Tocqueville drew much from Voltaire, an influential French philosopher of the Enlightenment.

Andrew Jackson (Author)

Jackson served as President of the United States when Tocqueville visited America. His political policies emphasized rule of the majority and other radical democratic ideals.
Gustave de Beaumont (Author)

Beaumont and Tocqueville’s research on prison reforms took the friends to America. This trip served as the inspiration and groundwork for Democracy in America.

Key Quotes

The State

After having thus taken each individual one by one into its powerful hands, and having molded him as it pleases, the sovereign power extends its arms over the entire society; it covers the surface of society with a network of small, complicated, minute, and uniform rules, which the most original…

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Critical Responses

Journal Article

Liberty, Equality, and Democracy

Eduardo Nolla

This title dives into Tocqueville’s political philosophy and social theories.

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Book

Democracy and Its Friendly Critics: Tocqueville and Political Life Today

Peter Augstine Lawler, editor

As the title suggests, this compilation of essays examines Tocqueville and the political life of contemporary America.

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Connected Readings

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L’Ancien Régime et la Révolution (7th ed. 1866)

Alexis de Tocqueville

In his study of the French Revolution, Tocqueville explores the tension between liberty and equality.

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Select Works of Edmund Burke, vol. 2

Francis Canavan

Burke compares the government reforms and political theories of the French Revolution to the Glorious Revolution of England.

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Smith, Tocqueville, and Foucault on the Temptation of Enlightened Despotism

Eric Schilesser

This series of articles defends American republicanism and its form as laid out in the Constitution.

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AdamSmithWorks Essay

Smith, Tocqueville, and Foucault on the Temptation of Enlightened Despotism

Eric Schilesser

Schilesser discusses the possible inherent dangers of liberalism as presented by Smith, Tocqueville, and Foucault.

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Law & Liberty Essay

Trump, Tocqueville, and American Democracy

Carson Holloway

This article analyzes contemporary American politics against the writings and ideas of Tocqueville.

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Tocqueville’s Voyages: The Evolution of His Ideas and Their Journey Beyond His Time

Christine Dunn Henderson

This collection of essays explores the development of Tocqueville’s ideas about America and other global issues.

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