In 1831 Alexis de Tocqueville, a young French aristocrat and ambitious civil servant, set out from post-revolutionary France on a journey across America that would take him 9 months and cover 7,000 miles. The result was Democracy in America, a subtle and prescient analysis of the life and institutions of 19th-century America. Tocqueville looked to the flourishing deomcratic system in America as a possible model for post-revolutionary France, believing that the egalitarian ideals it enshrined reflected the spirit of the age and even divine will. His study of the strengths and weaknesses of an evolving democratic society has been quoted by every American president since Eisenhower, and remains a key point of reference for any discussion of the American nation or the democratic system.
Two volumes in one. Brown leather bound with gilt lettering on the spine. Private fraternity library spine label at the bottom and bookplate on the front inside cover. Presentation inscription on the second endpaper. Cover is a little scuffed and the gilt on the cover edges is worn. Marbled page ends. Some minor foxing and a few page stains. Illustrated frontispiece. Over 800 pages. Size: 6.5"x9"
- The Republic of the United States of America and the Political Institutions, Reviewed and Examined, 2 Volumes in 1
- Alexis De Toqueville
- A. S. Barnes & Co., 1851
