DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA. With An Introduction By Alan Ryan

De Tocqueville, Alexis

ISBN 10: 0679431349 / ISBN 13: 9780679431343

Editore: NY & Toronto. 1993. A.A. Knopf / Everyman's Library #79., 1994

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red, black & gilt decorative cloth hardbound 8vo. 8º (octavo) with red satin place marker ribbon. no dustwrapper. fine cond. looks new. like new. binding square & tight. dark spot on rear cover at bottom from old sticker, otherwise covers clean. edges clean. contents free of markings. nice clean copy. no library markings or store stamps, no stickers or bookplates, no names, no inking , no underlining, no remainder markings etc ~. 2 volumes in one single volume edition. 3rd printing. decorative endpapers, frontis. & title pg. lxxii+434+xi+394p. notes. select bibliography. chronology. a note on the text. The Francis Bowen translation ("In preparing this edition it was decided to use the Bowen Text"). ~american history. travel & exploration politics. political philosophy. france. french literature. ~"Alexis de Tocqueville's great book is as relevant now as when first published in the mid~nineteenth century. It remains the most penetrating and astute picture of American life, politics, and morals ever written~whether by an American or, as in this case, by a foreign visitor. Democracy in America is endlessly quoted from and referred to, and countless foreign statesmen and scholars ~D. W Brogan and Lord Bryce, among many others ~have paid homage to Tocqueville with their own portraits of America. This volume contains the entire two volumes of Tocqueville's classic study.".

Codice articolo 8092202

Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA. With An Introduction By Alan Ryan
• Editore: NY & Toronto. 1993. A.A. Knopf / Everyman's Library #79.
• Data di pubblicazione: 1994
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0679431349
• ISBN 13: 9780679431343
• Rilegatura: Rilegato
• Cataloghi dei venditori:
  • memoirs
  • political philosophy
  • american history

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto

 

Democracy in America has had the singular honor of being even to this day the work that political commentators of every stripe refer to when they seek to draw large conclusions about the society of the United States. Alexis de Tocqueville, a young French aristocrat, came to the young nation to investigate the functioning of American democracy and the social, political, and economic life of its citizens, publishing his observations in 1835 and 1840. Brilliantly written and vividly illustrated with vignettes and portraits, Democracy in America is far more than a trenchant analysis of one society at a particular point in time. What will most intrigue modern readers is how many of Tocqueville’s observations still hold true: on the mixed advantages of a free press, the strained relations among the races, and the threats posed to democracies by consumerism and corruption.

 

So uncanny is Tocqueville’s insight and so accurate are his predictions, that it seems as though he were not merely describing the American identity but actually helping to create it.

Informazioni sull'autore

Alexis de Tocqueville was born in 1805 to a noble French family that had survived the French Revolution. His father gained some political power under the reign of the Bourbons, and after the July Revolution of 1830, the family was exiled along with the king. Tocqueville, then twenty-five years old, stayed in France, swearing allegiance to the new government. Shortly thereafter he and a friend, Gustave de Beaumont, sought and received a government assignment to study the prison system of the United States. They arrived in America in 1831. After extensive travels across the young nation, Tocqueville wrote Democracy in America (published in two volumes in 1835 and 1840). The publication of the first volume made Tocqueville a well-known figure, but he led a quiet life, accepting modest governmental posts, traveling around Europe, and marrying an Englishwoman. In 1848, Tocqueville once again rose to political prominence after a prescient speech that foretold of revolution. After serving through the massive upheavals and overthrows of government, Tocqueville retired from political life in 1849. Always weak in health, his lung disease grew progressively worse from that period on. Moving south several times on doctor’s recommendations, Tocqueville succumbed to death in 1859, in Cannes.