Alexis de Tocqueville

Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) was both a great political philosopher and a notable French politician. A classical liberal who criticized the monarchical tendencies of the Old Right and the socialism of the New Left, Tocqueville maintained center-right political instincts, which affirmed the goodness of representative government while recognizing the dangers of the tyranny of the majority. Many still hail his magnum opus, Democracy in America, as the greatest book ever written on American democracy, but he was also a talented historian and chronicler of the events of his day.

Dr. Joseph Wysocki, the former Provost of Belmont Abbey College, provides a lucid survey of Tocqueville’s Democracy in America in this free online course.

Preferred Editions:

Alexis de Tocqueville, The Ancien Regime and the Revolution, trans. Gerald Bevan (New York: Penguin, 2008).
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, trans. Harvey C. Mansfield and Delba Winthrop (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000).
Alexis de Tocqueville, Recollections: The French Revolution of 1848, trans. J.P. Mayer and A.P. Kerr (New York: Routledge, 1987).

Insightful Secondary Literature:

Brian Danoff and Joseph Hebert, Jr., eds., Alexis de Tocqueville and the Art of Democratic Statesmanship (Lanham: Lexington, 2010).
Peter Augustine Lawler, ed., Democracy and Its Friendly Critics (Lanham: Lexington, 2004).

Useful External Links:

Peter Augustine Lawler, The Restless Mind: Alexis de Tocqueville on the Origin and Perpetuation of Human Liberty (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 1993). Out of print.
Daniel J. Mahoney, The Conservative Foundations of the Liberal Order (Wilmington: Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2011). Out of print.
Daniel J. Mahoney, The Statesman as Thinker: Portraits of Greatness, Courage, and Moderation (New York: Encounter, 2022).
Paul A. Rahe, Soft Despotism, Democracy’s Drift: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Tocqueville, and the Modern Prospect (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010).

Helpful External Links:

Great Thinkers: Alexis de Tocqueville
Liberty Fund: Alexis de Tocqueville