Alexis de tocqueville quotes

Alexis de Tocqueville

French politician and historian (1805–1859)

"Tocqueville" redirects here. For other uses, see Tocqueville (disambiguation).

Alexis de Tocqueville

1850 portrait by Théodore Chassériau

In office
2 June 1849 – 30 October 1849
Prime MinisterOdilon Barrot
Preceded byÉdouard Drouyn de Lhuys
Succeeded byAlphonse de Rayneval
In office
27 August 1849 – 29 April 1852
Preceded byLéonor-Joseph Havin
Succeeded byUrbain Le Verrier
In office
25 April 1848 – 3 December 1851
Preceded byLéonor-Joseph Havin
Succeeded byHervé de Kergorlay
ConstituencySainte-Mère-Église
In office
7 March 1839 – 23 April 1848
Preceded byJules Polydore Le Marois
Succeeded byGabriel-Joseph Laumondais
ConstituencyValognes
Born

Alexis Charles Henri Clérel de Tocqueville


(1805-07-29)29 July 1805
Paris, France
Died16 April 1859(1859-04-16) (aged 53)
Cannes, France
Resting placeTocqueville, Manche
Political partyMovement Party[1][2]

The Man Who Understood Democracy: The Life of Alexis de Tocqueville

In 1831, at the age of twenty-five, Alexis de Tocqueville made his fateful journey to America, where he observed the thrilling reality of a functioning democracy. From that moment onward, the French aristocrat would dedicate his life as a writer and politician to ending despotism in his country and bringing it into a new age. In this authoritative and groundbreaking biography, leading Tocqueville expert Olivier Zunz tells the story of a radical thinker who, uniquely charged by the events of his time, both in America and France, used the world as a laboratory for his political ideas. Placing Tocqueville’s dedication to achieving a new kind of democracy at the center of his life and work, Zunz traces Tocqueville’s evolution into a passionate student and practitioner of liberal politics across a trove of correspondence with intellectuals, politicians, constituents, family members, and friends. While taking seriously Tocqueville’s attempts to apply the lessons of Democracy in America to French politics, Z

Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859) was a French philosopher and statesman. Belonging to a Norman aristocratic family that traced its origins to the Battle of Hastings (1066), Tocqueville’s parents barely escaped the guillotine in the terror of the French Revolution. After studies in Metz and Paris, Tocqueville became a magistrate, but quickly grew bored by narrow legal work. In 1831, King Louis-Philippe commissioned Tocqueville and his friend Gustave de Beaumont to study prison conditions in the United States, and the two travelled to America over nine months in 1831 and 1832. Tocqueville drew on this experience to produce his two-volume masterpiece, Democracy in America (1835/1840). Tocqueville would also travel to England, Ireland, and Algeria, writing noteworthy accounts of these voyages. He conducted correspondence with many of the most notable public and intellectual figures of the day, including the English liberal John Stuart Mill.

Politically as well as intellectually ambitious, Tocqueville served as a deputy and sometime advisor to Louis-Philippe during the July Monarch

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