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Very Short Introductions #239
توكفيل: مقدمة قصيرة جدا
يعرض هارفي سي مانسفيلد — الذي ترجم طبعةً معتمدةً لكتاب توكفيل «الديمقراطية في أمريكا» — خلاصةَ عقودٍ من البحث والتأمُّل في توكفيل وأعماله في مقدمةٍ كاشفةٍ وموجزةٍ على نحوٍ مُدهش. يستكشف مانسفيلد على نحوٍ واضحٍ وثاقبٍ أعمالَ توكفيل؛ ليس فقط رائعته «الديمقراطية في أمريكا»، بل أيضًا كتابه الغامض «ذكريات» الذي كتبه للأجيال القادمة ولم ينشره في حياته، وكذلك عمله غير المنتهي عن بلده فرنسا «النظام القديم والثورة». وهو يوضح كيف تجلَّتِ العناصرُ العديدة لحياة توكفيل في فكره؛ أصله الأرستقراطي، وعمله في السياسة، ورحلاته إلى الخارج، وآماله ومخاوفه تجاه أمريكا، وخيبة أمله في فرنسا. إن كلَّ أعمال توكفيل تكشف عن شغفٍ بالحرية السياسية، وإصرارٍ على العظمة الإنسانية، وربما الأكثر أهميةً أنه لم يرَ الحريةَ في النظريات، بل في تطبيق الحكم الذاتي في أمريكا. وحيث إن توكفيل كان دائمًا معارِضًا للتجريد، فقد قدَّمَ تحليلًا يدفعنا للتفكير فيما نفعله في عالمنا السياسي، مشيرًا إلى أن النظريات في حد ذاتها قد تكون عدوًّا للحرية؛ وهذا، حسب اعتقاد مانسفيلد، ما يجعل توكفيل مفكِّرًا شديدَ الأهمية في عالمنا اليوم.
117 pages, ebook
First published July 13, 2007
43 people are currently reading
668 people want to read
About the author
Harvey C. Mansfield
49 books82 followersHarvey Claflin Mansfield, Jr. is a Professor of Government at Harvard University.
He has held Guggenheim and NEH Fellowships and has been a Fellow at the National Humanities Center; he also received the National Humanities Medal in 2004 and delivered the Jefferson Lecture in 2007. He is a Carol G. Simon Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. He is notable for his generally conservative stance on political issues in his writings.
Mansfield is the author and co-translator of studies of and/or by major political philosophers such as Aristotle, Edmund Burke, Niccolò Machiavelli, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Thomas Hobbes, of Constitutional government, and of Manliness (2006).
Among his most notable former students are: Andrew Sullivan, Alan Keyes, Robert Kraynak, John Gibbons, William Kristol, Nathan Tarcov, Clifford Orwin, Mark Blitz, Paul Cantor, Delba Winthrop, Mark Lilla, Arthur Melzer, Jerry Weinberger, Francis Fukuyama, Shen Tong, and James Ceaser.
He has held Guggenheim and NEH Fellowships and has been a Fellow at the National Humanities Center; he also received the National Humanities Medal in 2004 and delivered the Jefferson Lecture in 2007. He is a Carol G. Simon Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. He is notable for his generally conservative stance on political issues in his writings.
Mansfield is the author and co-translator of studies of and/or by major political philosophers such as Aristotle, Edmund Burke, Niccolò Machiavelli, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Thomas Hobbes, of Constitutional government, and of Manliness (2006).
Among his most notable former students are: Andrew Sullivan, Alan Keyes, Robert Kraynak, John Gibbons, William Kristol, Nathan Tarcov, Clifford Orwin, Mark Blitz, Paul Cantor, Delba Winthrop, Mark Lilla, Arthur Melzer, Jerry Weinberger, Francis Fukuyama, Shen Tong, and James Ceaser.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
July 12, 2025
A New Kind Of Liberal
Harvey Mansfield's 2010 study of Alexis de Tocqueville (1805 -- 1859) offers a provocative interpretation of this thinker and his continued importance rather than a mere summary. The book is part of Oxford University Press' "Very Short Introductions" series which aims to introduce readers to subjects and persons of importance in brief volumes. Mansfield is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Government at Harvard University and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He has written extensively about political philosophy and in 2011 published an acclaimed translation of Tocqueville's "Democracy in America".
Tocqueville was a French aristocrat who achieved greatness for his thoughts about democracy. Mansfield offers a short consideration of Tocqueville's life and of his endeavors in politics, but he spends most of the book discussing the writings. He concentrates of Tocqueville's most famous work, "Democracy in America" published in two volumes in 1835 and 1840. The book includes Tocqueville's reflections on the United States based upon a nine-month visit in 1831-32 with his friend, Gustave de Beaumont. Almost everyone who writes about or seeks to understand the United States studies and refers to "Democracy in America". Mansfield also considers Tocqueville's two other important books and their relationship to "Democracy": "The Old Regime and the Revolution" (1856), a book left unfinished which explores the background of the French Revolution, and the "Recollections", a personal account of the Revolution of 1848 which remained unpublished, at Tocqueville's request, until 1893.
In a letter to a friend, Tocqueville described himself as a "new kind of liberal". Mansfield tries to show how this description was justified. Mansfield distinguishes Tocqueville from the older kind of liberalism of Hobbes and Locke which was based upon a social contract theory and a view of human beings and their rights in a state of nature before social organization. Mansfield argues that Tocqueville rejects this individualistic, pre-social analysis of the human condition and accepts instead an Aristotelian view of man as a "political animal". Human beings must be understood, in this view, in a social context at the outset rather than as disconnected individuals.
Mansfield also argues that Tocqueville distrusted philosophy or ideology of any stripe as a basis for understanding political liberalism. Instead, Tocqueville developed his thinking about democracy, its merits and its dangers, from a consideration of the ways in which people work with and get along with one another. This approach gives his study of American democracy a descriptive, empirical cast. For Mansfield, Tocqueville begins with the American democratic experience in the self-governance of small towns and local courts rather than in large-scale government or in philosophical abstractions.
Another way in which Tocqueville's liberalism was "new", Mansfield argues, was in its friendliness to religion and in its critique of materialism. As a liberal, Tocqueville insisted upon the separation of religion from governance. But he found religion performed a critical role in reminding individuals in a democracy on the importance of virtue and of spiritual values as opposed simply to making money and to pursuing short-term satisfactions.
Finally, for Mansfield, Tocqueville's liberalism differed from its predecessors in recognizing the importance of individual human greatness and achievement. Perhaps as a result of his aristocratic background, Tocqueville thought that the goal of democracy was to allow individuals to achieve and excel and develop their gifts rather than to produce a state of leveling and mass mediocrity.
In his study, Mansfield develops the nature of Tocqueville's liberalism by focusing on five subjects: his description of democratic politics, thoughts on democratic self-government, his fears for democracy, his discussion of the rational administrative state and its virtues and limitations, and, lastly, Tocqueville's understanding of human greatness and its realization in a democracy. This is a great deal of material to cover in a "Very Short Introduction". Mansfield's discussion is dense, concentrated, and pithy.
Mansfield's book offers a short, insightful overview of Tocqueville's thought. It made me want to revisit Tocqueville for myself. The book reminded me of, for some, the importance of thought and study in understanding the United States and its experiment in democratic government.
Robin Friedman
Harvey Mansfield's 2010 study of Alexis de Tocqueville (1805 -- 1859) offers a provocative interpretation of this thinker and his continued importance rather than a mere summary. The book is part of Oxford University Press' "Very Short Introductions" series which aims to introduce readers to subjects and persons of importance in brief volumes. Mansfield is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Government at Harvard University and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He has written extensively about political philosophy and in 2011 published an acclaimed translation of Tocqueville's "Democracy in America".
Tocqueville was a French aristocrat who achieved greatness for his thoughts about democracy. Mansfield offers a short consideration of Tocqueville's life and of his endeavors in politics, but he spends most of the book discussing the writings. He concentrates of Tocqueville's most famous work, "Democracy in America" published in two volumes in 1835 and 1840. The book includes Tocqueville's reflections on the United States based upon a nine-month visit in 1831-32 with his friend, Gustave de Beaumont. Almost everyone who writes about or seeks to understand the United States studies and refers to "Democracy in America". Mansfield also considers Tocqueville's two other important books and their relationship to "Democracy": "The Old Regime and the Revolution" (1856), a book left unfinished which explores the background of the French Revolution, and the "Recollections", a personal account of the Revolution of 1848 which remained unpublished, at Tocqueville's request, until 1893.
In a letter to a friend, Tocqueville described himself as a "new kind of liberal". Mansfield tries to show how this description was justified. Mansfield distinguishes Tocqueville from the older kind of liberalism of Hobbes and Locke which was based upon a social contract theory and a view of human beings and their rights in a state of nature before social organization. Mansfield argues that Tocqueville rejects this individualistic, pre-social analysis of the human condition and accepts instead an Aristotelian view of man as a "political animal". Human beings must be understood, in this view, in a social context at the outset rather than as disconnected individuals.
Mansfield also argues that Tocqueville distrusted philosophy or ideology of any stripe as a basis for understanding political liberalism. Instead, Tocqueville developed his thinking about democracy, its merits and its dangers, from a consideration of the ways in which people work with and get along with one another. This approach gives his study of American democracy a descriptive, empirical cast. For Mansfield, Tocqueville begins with the American democratic experience in the self-governance of small towns and local courts rather than in large-scale government or in philosophical abstractions.
Another way in which Tocqueville's liberalism was "new", Mansfield argues, was in its friendliness to religion and in its critique of materialism. As a liberal, Tocqueville insisted upon the separation of religion from governance. But he found religion performed a critical role in reminding individuals in a democracy on the importance of virtue and of spiritual values as opposed simply to making money and to pursuing short-term satisfactions.
Finally, for Mansfield, Tocqueville's liberalism differed from its predecessors in recognizing the importance of individual human greatness and achievement. Perhaps as a result of his aristocratic background, Tocqueville thought that the goal of democracy was to allow individuals to achieve and excel and develop their gifts rather than to produce a state of leveling and mass mediocrity.
In his study, Mansfield develops the nature of Tocqueville's liberalism by focusing on five subjects: his description of democratic politics, thoughts on democratic self-government, his fears for democracy, his discussion of the rational administrative state and its virtues and limitations, and, lastly, Tocqueville's understanding of human greatness and its realization in a democracy. This is a great deal of material to cover in a "Very Short Introduction". Mansfield's discussion is dense, concentrated, and pithy.
Mansfield's book offers a short, insightful overview of Tocqueville's thought. It made me want to revisit Tocqueville for myself. The book reminded me of, for some, the importance of thought and study in understanding the United States and its experiment in democratic government.
Robin Friedman
October 29, 2022
This very short introduction allows the reader to understand the writings of Alex de Tocqueville most famously known for the two volume Democracy in America.
Tocqueville travelled for 9 months in America in 1831-32 with his great friend Gustave de Beaumont. The first volume of Democracy in America appeared in 1835. This volume was about the country of America and its virtues and faults and was rapturously received. The second volume published in 1840 and more about Tocqueville's fears for the future of democracy didn't register on the same scale as the first volume.
It's fair to say Tocqueville appraised democracy in his work and only praised it when he saw it in action, notably in the townships of America.
Tocqueville also wrote about the revolutions in his home country of France. In The Old Regime, he argues that the 1789 - 95 revolution started in the society it was to destroy and that it was the work of the Old Regime of the French monarchy which set out deliberately but mostly unconsciously to destroy itself. Tocqueville argues this Revolution started in around 1439 or 1444 when Charles VII ordered a new tax without the consent of the nobility.
His other major work, Recollections, is an account of the 1848 revolution in France which Tocqueville witnessed and acted in. This revolution was a failure and shows what happens when citizens are inspired by philosophers.
Tocqueville travelled for 9 months in America in 1831-32 with his great friend Gustave de Beaumont. The first volume of Democracy in America appeared in 1835. This volume was about the country of America and its virtues and faults and was rapturously received. The second volume published in 1840 and more about Tocqueville's fears for the future of democracy didn't register on the same scale as the first volume.
It's fair to say Tocqueville appraised democracy in his work and only praised it when he saw it in action, notably in the townships of America.
Tocqueville also wrote about the revolutions in his home country of France. In The Old Regime, he argues that the 1789 - 95 revolution started in the society it was to destroy and that it was the work of the Old Regime of the French monarchy which set out deliberately but mostly unconsciously to destroy itself. Tocqueville argues this Revolution started in around 1439 or 1444 when Charles VII ordered a new tax without the consent of the nobility.
His other major work, Recollections, is an account of the 1848 revolution in France which Tocqueville witnessed and acted in. This revolution was a failure and shows what happens when citizens are inspired by philosophers.
January 3, 2024
مقدمة قصيرة جدا عن أحد أهم من كتب عن الديمقراطية بعد الثورة الفرنسية ، هذه المقدمة استطاعت أن تقدم أهم الأفكار التي صاغها توكفيل عن النظام السياسي بشكل عام والديمقراطية بشكل خاص ، وقد صاغ أفكاره ومبادئه من التجربة الديمقراطية الامريكية ، ناقش توكفيل فكرة الديمقراطية وتطبيقاتها وعالج مواطن الخلل في التجربة الامريكية خصوصا فكرة استبداد الديمقراطية ، أتصور أن توكفيل ينظر الى الديمقراطية كآلية حكم تستلزم مبادئ محددة ومن دونها تكون الديمقراطية أداة هدم للمجتمعات ، أحدى أهم تلك الركائز هي الليبرالية ولكنه يستدرك لصيغ ليبراليته من نوع جديد ، فإن كانت الليبرالية ركيزة مهمة للديمقراطية إلا أن لابد من رسم حدود واضحة ودقيقة لتلك الحرية التي تحفظ الفردانية مقابل الجمعانية في الوقت الذي تحقق تحفيز الإنسان لمزيد من تحقيق العدالة والمساواة . تأتي ركيزة العقلانية لتكون أحدى ضمان عدم انحراف الديمقراطية عن مساراتها السياسية ، وكذلك البيروقراطية التي ساهم في صياغتها ماكس فيبر ، بيروقراطية ترسم مسار الالتزام بالمبادئ والأفكار المحققة للمساواة والحرية ، في المجمل يؤمن توكفيل بأن الدمقراطية ليست آلية حكم منفصلة عن باقي ركائز المدنية الحديثة بل هي لا قيامة لها بدونهم .
March 8, 2023
Hilariously obviously written by an American.
The book isn't really about Tocqueville as much as a synopsis of his works - of course nearly 2/3 of it on Democracy in America. Despite the author's relishing in its liberalism, it's quite drily written and the formatting almost seems like he was writing it on the side of reading the source material as he went along. Very much "and then he says this" "and then he says that" take.
The book isn't really about Tocqueville as much as a synopsis of his works - of course nearly 2/3 of it on Democracy in America. Despite the author's relishing in its liberalism, it's quite drily written and the formatting almost seems like he was writing it on the side of reading the source material as he went along. Very much "and then he says this" "and then he says that" take.
November 26, 2015
Alexis de Tocqueville's contributions to either the development of political philosophy or to actual political events are minimal and yet his influence endures because he is so likeable - enchantingly moderate, a charming and generous aristocrat as well as a democrat. Harvey C. Mansfield is the author of an acclaimed and authoritative translation of Tocqueville's most enduring work, Democracy in America, and the pages of this book glitter with (highly quotable) insight into his thought, making it both a pleasure and a challenge.
Introduction: a new kind of liberal
Chapter 1: Tocqueville's democratic providence
Chapter 2: Tocqueville's praise of democracy
Chapter 3: Informal democracy
Chapter 4: Democratic despotism
Chapter 5: Rational administration
Chapter 6: Tocqueville's pride
Introduction: a new kind of liberal
Chapter 1: Tocqueville's democratic providence
Chapter 2: Tocqueville's praise of democracy
Chapter 3: Informal democracy
Chapter 4: Democratic despotism
Chapter 5: Rational administration
Chapter 6: Tocqueville's pride
June 23, 2015
Democracy in America is one of my absolute favorite reads, and I found Mansfield's introduction to its author a wonderful complement to it. You get so much more insight into the mind of Alexis de Tocqueville with an understanding of his own role in politics back home. And you get to see his unflagging optimism punctured a bit in the brief survey of his other works in this VSI.
May 1, 2025
Tocqueville and Democracy in America has always seemed confusing to me in the past, somewhere between political philosophy, history and sociology. Despite the common perception of him as a liberal and a democrat, it isn't so clear that he approved of either. Tocqueville described himself as "a new kind of liberal": unlike that of Hobbes and Locke which privileged the freedom of the individual, his began with the community. Humans are political animals (following Aristotle), not solitary ones. Tocqueville was also somewhat of an elitist, and believed that societies should strive for "greatness", and that more civilised societies are better than less civilised ones (leading him to support colonialism).
Born an aristocrat, he supported the goals of the revolution (which he wrote about in The Old Regime and the Revolution) and spent some time in French politics, opposing the imperial tendencies of Louis Napoleon. When he grew frustrated with that scene, he organised some funding for a trip to the US (ostensibly to write a report on prisons). One anecdote mentioned in the book is of a sailor who says that Americans don't invest in building really good ships because the technology improves so fast that any ship will soon be obsolete in any case. I think this is quite representative of what Tocqueville both liked and disliked about the young country: energetic, chaotic, creative and optimistic, so different to the stable conservatism of Europe. Especially in the Biedermeier era this book was written in, but I think that this is even today what captivates a lot of European immigrants to the States.
I also liked Tocqueville on the media: he thinks that when people are true believers they can switch sides, while sceptics tend to stick with the status quo, since they doubt everything. Since the media is so full of scepticism and lies, it makes people sceptical of everything, inducing a desirable stability in public opinion!
Born an aristocrat, he supported the goals of the revolution (which he wrote about in The Old Regime and the Revolution) and spent some time in French politics, opposing the imperial tendencies of Louis Napoleon. When he grew frustrated with that scene, he organised some funding for a trip to the US (ostensibly to write a report on prisons). One anecdote mentioned in the book is of a sailor who says that Americans don't invest in building really good ships because the technology improves so fast that any ship will soon be obsolete in any case. I think this is quite representative of what Tocqueville both liked and disliked about the young country: energetic, chaotic, creative and optimistic, so different to the stable conservatism of Europe. Especially in the Biedermeier era this book was written in, but I think that this is even today what captivates a lot of European immigrants to the States.
I also liked Tocqueville on the media: he thinks that when people are true believers they can switch sides, while sceptics tend to stick with the status quo, since they doubt everything. Since the media is so full of scepticism and lies, it makes people sceptical of everything, inducing a desirable stability in public opinion!
January 3, 2018
I couldn’t miss the chance to read about one of American history aficionados’ favorite Frenchmen. Not that he participated in American history, but because he wrote about us, and that is really flattering. This book is about half biography and half explanation of Tocqueville’s writings. Mansfield is perfectly suited for this, since he has spent years translating Tocqueville.
This is a good introduction to Tocqueville. It explains how an aristocrat fell in love with democracy and survived the French Revolution to serve in several different kinds of government. It also does an excellent job of presenting the main thrust of his written works in a small space. The discussion of volume one of Democracy in America is very interesting. The book slows down a bit as it makes its way through the second volume of Democracy in America, but it picks up with the discussion of The Old Regime and the Revolution.
Overall, I recommend this for a quick introduction to Tocqueville’s life and work.
This is a good introduction to Tocqueville. It explains how an aristocrat fell in love with democracy and survived the French Revolution to serve in several different kinds of government. It also does an excellent job of presenting the main thrust of his written works in a small space. The discussion of volume one of Democracy in America is very interesting. The book slows down a bit as it makes its way through the second volume of Democracy in America, but it picks up with the discussion of The Old Regime and the Revolution.
Overall, I recommend this for a quick introduction to Tocqueville’s life and work.
February 6, 2025
في “مقدمة قصيرة لتوكفيل”، يعرض لنا الكاتب رؤية توكفيل العميقة حول الديمقراطية والمجتمع الأمريكي في القرن التاسع عشر. في هذا الكتاب، يتتبع توكفيل كيف يمكن أن تتحقق المساواة في النظام الديمقراطي الأمريكي، وكيف تؤثر هذه المساواة على الثقافة والعلاقات الإنسانية. يناقش توكفيل كيف يمكن للمجتمع الديمقراطي أن يعيش تحت طائلة فردانية مطلقة وعبودية الذات، حيث يصبح الفرد محاطًا بالكثير من الحرية ولكنه يفتقر إلى الروابط الاجتماعية القوية.
يتوقف الكاتب عند إشكالية ما إذا كانت الديمقراطية فعلاً تحافظ على الحرية الشخصية وتؤدي إلى تقدم اجتماعي، أم أنها تقود إلى استبداد خفي يظهر في صورة رأي عام مُجبر أو مجموعة من الاتجاهات التي تحكم الاختيارات الشخصية.
الكتاب يعكس بذكاء كيف تتداخل السياسة مع الثقافة والتاريخ، وكيف يمكن لتطورات ديمقراطية جديدة أن تكون لها عواقب غير متوقعة على الأفراد والمجتمع ككل.
يتوقف الكاتب عند إشكالية ما إذا كانت الديمقراطية فعلاً تحافظ على الحرية الشخصية وتؤدي إلى تقدم اجتماعي، أم أنها تقود إلى استبداد خفي يظهر في صورة رأي عام مُجبر أو مجموعة من الاتجاهات التي تحكم الاختيارات الشخصية.
الكتاب يعكس بذكاء كيف تتداخل السياسة مع الثقافة والتاريخ، وكيف يمكن لتطورات ديمقراطية جديدة أن تكون لها عواقب غير متوقعة على الأفراد والمجتمع ككل.
April 11, 2022
While it may be as much a problem with the reader as with the author (perhaps even more so) I found this rather ponderous going. Once I got to chapter four I felt like I was following Mr. Mansfield's elucidations of Tocqueville's works much better. Perhaps it was a matter of getting used to his style.
However, I have read Democracy in America a couple of times and found it more accessible than Mr. Mansfield's explications.
Maybe I'll go back now and read the first three chapters and see if it was a matter of style.
However, I have read Democracy in America a couple of times and found it more accessible than Mr. Mansfield's explications.
Maybe I'll go back now and read the first three chapters and see if it was a matter of style.
July 2, 2020
A book that really highlights the overlap between contractarianism, enlightenment European values, the American Revolution (or one perspective of it) and the French Revolution. A fascinating work where it marked the move of men of letters to think about serious and political matters instead of being mainly literary figures. I wouldn't be reading so many of the current affairs political books as I would without someone like de Tocqueville's 'Democracy in America'
August 10, 2022
A Very Good Intriduction
This Short Introduction is biased, as it should, at least according to the author who - in his other works - makes it clear that being political is being partisan, choosing one Good over another. So, true to his roots of political philosophy, he presents an indirect critique of Liberal Democracy through an even more indirect critique, that is Tocqueville. Suggested read for sure.
This Short Introduction is biased, as it should, at least according to the author who - in his other works - makes it clear that being political is being partisan, choosing one Good over another. So, true to his roots of political philosophy, he presents an indirect critique of Liberal Democracy through an even more indirect critique, that is Tocqueville. Suggested read for sure.
October 7, 2023
Very readable introduction by one of the most decorated Tocqueville-scholars to date. Professor Mansfield impressively selects and expounds key threads. A six hour slow study-like read, might take less if read as an introduction to the topic instead of as an analysis.
June 21, 2021
Somehow drier and more interminable than Tocqueville himself.
March 7, 2024
مقدمة جافه تجيب المرارة ومن دون طائل معرفي؛ فيه مشكلة بذي السلسلة مش معقول الأعم الأغلب منها يعطيك نفس التجربة الخائبة.
May 18, 2025
في نهاية الكتاب تصل إلى ضرورة قراءة توكفيل نفسه "الديمقراطية في امريكا" ؛ "النظام القديم والثورة" للمزيد من الايضاح ولفهم المقدمة بشكل أفضل .
February 17, 2011
Mansfield is a genius. This short volume is a thoughtful introduction to Tocqueville and highlights his philosophical contributions which are frequently lost to the quotatability of his social science approach.
May 13, 2021
Useful
While perhaps overly praising Tocqueville, Mansfield does contextualize him well and explains the key ideas in all of Tocqueville's works. Despite a defensiveness in regards to securing Tocqueville's importance, this volume does what you want a brief introduction to do.
While perhaps overly praising Tocqueville, Mansfield does contextualize him well and explains the key ideas in all of Tocqueville's works. Despite a defensiveness in regards to securing Tocqueville's importance, this volume does what you want a brief introduction to do.
July 25, 2017
Nothing really wrongly done in this, but I don't feel Tocqueville to be very important thinker...
April 22, 2016
An illuminating tour of Tocqueville's three major works: Democracy in America, The Old Regime, and Recollections. A short, easy read. Recommended.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews