Alexis de Tocqueville
French political thinker and historian
Alexis de Tocqueville was a French political thinker and historian. He wrote Democracy in America after traveling in the United States.
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French Born 1805 in Paris Died 1859
Influenced by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Plato, Aristotle
About Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859) was born in Paris and worked as a French diplomat, political philosopher and historian. He is best known for Democracy in America, which appeared in two volumes, in 1835 and 1840. It followed his travels in the United States, and it is now seen as an early example of sociology and political science writing. Tocqueville took part in French politics under the July Monarchy and the Second Republic. He left political life after Louis Napoléon Bonaparte's coup of December 1851, and then began work on The Old Regime and the Revolution, published in 1856. He was a classical liberal who favoured parliamentary government.