Historical Figure
Alexis de Tocqueville
d. 1859
French diplomat, political philosopher and historian (1805–1859)
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Biography
Alexis Charles Henri Clérel, comte de Tocqueville, was a French diplomat, 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.
In Their Own Words (5)
General ideas are no proof of the strength, but rather of the insufficiency of the human intellect.
Book One, Chapter III. , 1840
Born under another sky, placed in the middle of an always-moving scene, himself driven by the irresistible torrent which sweeps along everything that surrounds him, the American has no time to tie himself to anything; he grows accustomed to naught but change, and concludes by viewing it as the natural state of man; he feels a need for it; even more, he loves it: for instability, instead of occurring to him in the form of disasters, seems to give birth to nothing around him but wonders...
National Character of Americans—first impressions (1831) Oeuvres complètes, vol. VIII, p. 233. , 1831
The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals; morals can turn the worst laws to advantage. That is a commonplace truth, but one to which my studies are always bringing me back. It is the central point in my conception. I see it at the end of all my reflections.
De la supériorité des mœurs sur les lois (1831) Oeuvres complètes, vol. VIII, p. 286. , 1831
The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through.
Chapter II. , 1835
He who seeks freedom for anything but freedom's self is made to be a slave.
Variant translation: The man who asks of freedom anything other than itself is born to be a slave. , 1856
Timeline
The story of Alexis de Tocqueville, told in moments.
Traveled to America at 25 on the pretext of studying its prison system. Spent nine months crisscrossing the country by stagecoach, steamboat, and horseback, interviewing everyone from President Andrew Jackson to frontier settlers.
Published the first volume of Democracy in America. He was 29. The book predicted that America and Russia would each "hold in its hands the destinies of half the world." He wrote this 114 years before the Cold War.
Died of tuberculosis in Cannes at 53. His work fell into relative obscurity in France but became a cornerstone of American political science.
Artifacts (5)
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