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Alexis de Tocqueville was among the first foreigners to recognize the potential of a new land called the United States. His classic work Democracy in America, first published in 1835, was not only a vivid portrait of the new nation, but also a startlingly accurate forecast of its future. From the influence of evangelical Christianity to the advent of our "consumer society," many of de Tocqueville's predictions have come true. Bestselling author Joseph Epstein revisits de Tocqueville's legacy, providing a fresh account of his classic travels in America. Epstein explains how de Tocqueville, introverted and prone to self-doubt, arrived at such a profoundly influential interpretation of this new country and its government. Alexis de Tocqueville: Democracy's Guide is a compelling portrait of the Frenchman who would become an American icon. Joseph Epstein is the author of, among other books, Snobbery: The American Version, Fabulous Small Jews (a collection of stories), Envy, and Friendship: An Exposé. He was the editor of The American Scholar between 1974 and 1997, and for many years taught in the English Department at Northwestern University. His essays and stories have appeared in the New Yorker, Commentary, the Atlantic Monthly, and other magazines.
Joseph Epstein
Joseph Epstein is the author of thirty-one books, among them works on divorce, ambition, snobbery, friendship, envy, and gossip. He has published seventeen collections of essays and four books of short stories. He has been the editor of the American Scholar, the intellectual quarterly of Phi Beta Kappa, and for thirty years he taught in the English Department at Northwestern University. He has written for The New Yorker, Commentary, New Criterion, Times Literary Supplement, Claremont Review of Books, The New York Review of Books, Poetry, and other magazines both in the United States and abroad. In 2003, he was awarded the National Humanities Medal.
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