Ebook: Tocqueville: the aristocratic sources of liberty

Many American readers like to regard Alexis de Tocqueville as an honorary American and democrat - as the young French aristocrat who came to early America and, enthralled by what he saw, proceeded to write an American book explaining democratic America to itself. Yet, as this work argues, Democracy in America is best understood as a French book, written primarily for the French, and overwhelmingly concerned with France. 'America, ' this text claims, 'was merely a pretext for studying modern society and the woes of France.' For Tocqueville, in short, America was a mirror for France, a way for Tocqueville to write indirectly about his own society, to engage French thinkers and debates, and to come to terms with France's aristocratic legacy.