Democracy in America.

“ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT WORKS EVER WRITTEN ON AMERICAN POLITICAL AND CIVIL LIFE”

Translated by Henry Reeve, Esq. With an Original Preface and Notes by John C. Spencer, Counsellor at Law. First American edition. 8vo. xxx, 464 pp. Original embossed ribbed cloth, spine lettered and ruled in gilt (bookplates of William A. Blair and Christopher Clark Geest to front pastedown, small area of faint dampstain to lower margin throughout and upper corner of pp. 305-432; cloth unevenly faded, light shelf wear to extremities, some minor chipping to tips of spine, small amount of marking to covers, still a really excellent, well-preserved example, unrestored in the original cloth). New York, George Dearborn & Co.

The first American edition of the first part of de Tocqueville's magnum opus, a cornerstone of political science and the 'first systematic and empirical study of the effects of political power on modern society' (Nisbet, The Sociological Tradition, p. 120).

The book arose out of the 1831-2 tour that de Tocqueville undertook to examine the America prison system on behalf of the French government, but his observations soon expanded into a much broader analysis of how and why the system of republican representative government had succeeded so profoundly in the United States despite often failing elsewhere in the world. It stands amongst the greatest defences of the core values of democracy and 'one of the most significant works ever written on American political and civil life' (Books that Made Europe).

Democracy in America was published in two separate parts that appeared five years apart. The first part was originally published in French in 1835 and an English translation by Henry Reeve was published in London later in the same year, with the present American edition following three years later in 1838. The second part eventually appeared in 1840 as an entirely separate publication and the English translation, again undertaken by Henry Reeve, was published in Britain and America in the same year. The interval in publication between the parts has ensured that matched sets of the American editions in the original cloth are uncommon. 

The first and second parts stand almost as independent works: the first part contained de Tocqueville's most famous and important observations on the actual political system of democracy in America, while the second part focused on the concept of civil society as a sphere of private and civilian affairs, exploring the culture and manners of a democratic society. 'In explaining the difference between the first and second parts, Tocqueville used a term first employed by Adam Ferguson and then, to greater notice, by Hegel: the first part had been concerned with the political world in America, the second dealt with civil society' (Stone and Mennell, 'Introduction' to Alexis de Tocqueville on Democracy, Revolution, and Society, p. 25).

Stock Code: 251900