De la démocratie en Amérique is a classic French work by Alexis de Tocqueville. Its title can be translated literally as Of Democracy in America. In the book, Tocqueville examines the democratic revolution that he believed had been occurring over the previous several hundred years.
Title page of Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville, printed at New York, 1838
Alexis Charles Henri Clérel, comte de Tocqueville, usually known as just Tocqueville, was a French aristocrat, diplomat, sociologist, political scientist, political philosopher, and historian. He is best known for his works Democracy in America and The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856). In both, he analyzed the living standards and social conditions of individuals as well as their relationship to the market and state in Western societies. Democracy in America was published after Tocqueville's travels in the United States and is today considered an early work of sociology and political science.
1850 portrait
The Fabert School in Metz, where Tocqueville was a student between 1817 and 1823
Tocqueville at the 1851 "Commission de la révision de la Constitution à l'Assemblée nationale"
A page from original working manuscript of Democracy in America, c. 1840
