Letters from America

Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) was a French political philosopher and historian, best known for his works Democracy in America and The Old Regime and Revolution. He was a pioneer in modern political science and sociology, famously analyzing the societal changes provoked by democratic society. Actively engaged in French politics for most of his life, he retired after Napoleon's 1851 coup and focused on his writing. He died of tuberculosis in the spring of 1859.