Major Works

• Democracy In America

  - Recommended translation: Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America. Edited and translated by Harvey C. Mansfield and Delba Winthrop. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. Volume I originally published in 1835. Volume II originally published in 1840.
  Excerpt: "Among the novel objects that attracted my attention during my stay in the United States, nothing struck me more forcibly than the general equality of condition among the people. I readily discovered the prodigious influence that this primary fact… More

Other Works

• Journey to America

  - Recommended Translation: Journey to America, ed. J.P. Mayer, trans. George Lawrence (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1960)
  Excerpt: 9 May. Yesterday morning the first cry of land was heard but it took a glass to see the coast. Today the rising sun has just revealed Long Island to us. We are approaching the shore rapidly, one already sees grass and trees in leaf; it’s a… More

• Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont in America

  - Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont in America: Their Friendship and Their Travels, ed. Olivier Zunz, trans. Arthur Goldhammer (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2010)
  Excerpt: From Tocqueville To Charles Stoffels Paris, November 4, 1830 … My position in France is bad in every respect, at least to my way of seeing, for either this government will consolidate its position, which is not very likely, or it will be… More

• Selected Letters on Politics and Society

  - Recommended Translation:  Selected Letters on Politics and Society, ed. Roger Boesche, trans. James Toupin and Roger Boesche (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986)
  Excerpt: Paris, Feb. 21, 1835. To Eugène Stoffels: It is a long time since I have had any talk with you, dear friend; yet I often think of you. Among other anxieties, I am anxious about your present and future position. I fancy that if, as seems probable,… More

Commentary

• The Forms and Formalities of Liberty

  - Harvey C. Mansfield, ""The Forms and Formalities of Liberty," The Public Interest, No. 70 (Winter 1983), pp. 121-131."
  Excerpt: This statement is long for an epigraph but dense enough to require explanation, and deep enough to reward reflection. Speaking of “forms,” Tocqueville directs our attention to institutions or practices in which the manner of action is more… More

• Self-Interest Rightly Understood

  - Harvey C. Mansfield, "Self-Interest Rightly Understood," Political Theory, vol. 23 (1995), No. 1, pp. 48-66.
  Excerpt: The collapse of communism is an occasion to rethink our bourgeois liberalism, which has surprised everyone, favorable or not, with its success. In particular it is time to have another look at self-interest. For communism is said to have collapsed… More

• Tocqueville and the Nature of Democracy

  - Pierre Manent.  Tocqueville and the Nature of Democracy, trans. John Waggoner.  (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1996)
  Excerpt: Tocqueville distills his discovery of the essence of modern society, of democracy, in this way. The equality of conditions is not a single characteristic among others, however important they may be; it is the “generative fact” from which… More

• Alexis de Tocqueville on the Natural State of Religion in the Age of Democracy

  -
  Aristide Tessitore.  "Alexis de Tocqueville on the Natural State of Religion in the Age of Democracy" in The Journal of Politics , Vol. 64, No. 4 (Nov., 2002)
  Excerpt: Shortly after arriving in the new world, Tocqueville wrote to one of his oldest friends about the flurry of conflicting impressions that greeted him in New York. He was struck by “a mixture of vices and virtues that is rather difficult to… More

• The Cambridge Companion to Toqueville

  - The Cambridge Companion to Tocqueville, ed. Cheryl B. Welch, Cambridge University Press, 2006.
  Table of Contents: Part I. Theory: 1. Tocqueville’s Comparative Perspectives by Seymour Drescher 2. Tocqueville on 1789: Preconditions, Precipitants, and Triggers by Jon Elster 3. Tocqueville’s New Political Science by Harvey C. Mansfield and Delba… More

• More Than Kings and Less Than Men: Tocqueville on the Promise and Perils of Democratic Individualism

  - L. Joseph Hebert, Jr.  More Than Kings and Less Than Men: Tocqueville on the Promise and Perils of Democratic Individualism (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2010)  
  Excerpt: According to a tradition of classical writing, the key to any great work is in its beginning.  Tocqueville, whose college years were steeped in the study and imitation of Cicero and Demosthenes, illustrates this maxim well.  He tells us that the… More

• A New Kind of Liberalism

  - Harvey C. Mansfield, "A New Kind of Liberalism," New Criterion, March 2010.
  Excerpt: In view of Alexis de Tocqueville’s criticisms of philosophy, it may seem paradoxical and presumptuous to call him a philosopher; yet it was through his critique of philosophy that he set forth a new, rethought liberalism. In Democracy in America,… More

• Toqueville: A Very Short Introduction

  - Harvey C. Mansfield, Toqueville: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2010.
  Excerpt: In view of Tocqueville’s criticisms of philosophy, it may seem paradoxical and presumptuous to call him a philosopher. But he calls himself a “new kind of liberal;’ and he sets forth a new liberalism that he has rethought. In… More

• “Providence and Democracy” by Harvey Mansfield

  - Mansfield, Harvey C. "Providence and Democracy." Claremont Review of Books, Winter/Spring 2010/2011.
  Excerpt: Alexis de Tocqueville was a liberal, but, as he once wrote, a ‘new kind of liberal.’ For us, no feature of his new liberalism is more remarkable than the alliance between religion and liberty that he saw in America and proposed to be… More

• Tocqueville and America

  - James Q. Wilson.  "Tocqueville and America," Claremont Review of Books, Vol. XII, No. 2 (Spring 2012)
  Excerpt of an admiring but critical essay by James Q. Wilson on Tocqueville: Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville is no doubt the greatest book ever written by a foreigner about this country. It may be one of the greatest books written about any… More

Multimedia

• Tocqueville and Conservatism

  - "Tocqueville and Conservatism, " C-SPAN Discussion, September 12, 1997
  Tocqueville and Conservatism Tocqueville scholars discussed the conservative ideas in Democracy in America. They examined how Tocqueville’s ideas compare with late 20th century U.S. and European conservatism and the similarities between Tocqueville and… More

• Tocqueville and Aristocracy

  - "Tocqueville and Aristocracy," C-Span Discussion, September 12, 1997
  Tocqueville and Aristocracy Political scientists and historians from the U.S. and Europe talked about the philosophies of Alexis de Tocqueville, questioning how much of a democrat he was and how much the philosopher Aristotle influenced his writing. The… More

• Tocqueville and Socialism

  - "Tocqueville and Socialism," C-Span Discussion, September 12, 1997
  Tocqueville and Socialism The panel talked about the philosophy of Alexis de Tocqueville. They compared his writings to those of Rousseau and Marx, along with other contemporary thinkers. They focused on the conflict between individualism and collectivism… More

• Tocqueville’s World and Ours

  - James Ceaser, "Tocqueville's World and Ours," Lecture at Furman University, February 20, 2013
  Tocqueville’s World and Ours A rigorous examination of Democracy in America’s “new political science” and a search to answer, “What was Tocqueville putting behind him?” with his declaredly new approach.