PENGUIN CLASSICS : DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA AND TWO ESSAYS ON AMERICA PB B FORMAT – ALEXIS TOCQUEVILLE-ISAAC KRAMNICK-GERALD BEVAN

One of the most influential political texts ever written on America, and an indispensable authority on the nature of democracy In 1831 Alexis de Tocqueville, a young French aristocrat and civil servant, made a nine-month journey through eastern America. The result was Democracy in America, a monumental study of the strengths and weaknesses of the nation s evolving politics. Tocqueville looked to the flourishing democratic system in America as a possible model for post-revolutionary France, believing its egalitarian ideals reflected the spirit of the age. This edition, the only one that contains all Tocqueville s writings on America, includes the rarely translated Two Weeks in the Wilderness , an evocative account of Tocqueville s travels among the Iroquois and Chippeway, and Excursion to Lake Oneida . Translated by Gerald Bevan with an Introduction and Notes by Isaac Kramnick