The Man Who Understood Democracy: The Life of Alexis de Tocqueville
Olivier Zunz, "The Man Who Understood Democracy: The Life of Alexis de Tocqueville"
English | ISBN: 0691254141 | 2023 | 472 pages | PDF | 96 MB
English | ISBN: 0691254141 | 2023 | 472 pages | PDF | 96 MB
A definitive biography of the French aristocrat who became one of democracy’s greatest champions
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
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