The Cambridge Companion to Tocqueville

The Cambridge Companion to Tocqueville contains a set of critical interpretive essays by internationally renowned scholars on the work of Alexis de Tocqueville. The essays cover Tocqueville\'s major themes (liberty, equality, democracy, despotism, civil society, religion) and texts (Democracy in America, Recollections, Old Regime and the Revolution, other important reports, speeches and letters). The authors analyze both Tocqueville\'s contributions as a theorist of modern democracy and his craft as a writer. Collections of secondary work on Tocqueville have tended to fall into camps, either bringing together only scholars from one point of view or discipline, or treating only one major text. This Companion transcends national, ideological, disciplinary, and textual boundaries to bring together the best in recent Tocqueville scholarship. The essays not only introduce Tocqueville\'s major themes and texts, but also put forward provocative arguments that advance the field of Tocqueville studies.

• The introduction analyzes Tocqueville’s place in twenty-first century intellectual debates • Brings together both American and French scholars of Tocqueville • Contains essays on all of Tocqueville’s major texts

Part I. Theory: 1. Tocqueville’s comparative perspectives Seymour Drescher; 2. Tocqueville on 1789: preconditions, precipitants, and triggers Jon Elster; 3. Tocqueville’s new political science Harvey C. Mansfield and Delba Winthrop; 4. Tocqueville, political philosopher Pierre Manent; Part II. Texts: 5. Tocqueville’s Democracy in America reconsidered James T. Schleifer; 6. Translating Tocqueville: the constraints of classicism Arthur Goldhammer; 7. The writer Engagé: Tocqueville and political rhetoric Laurence Guellec; 8. The shifting puzzles of Tocqueville’s The Old Regime and the Revolution Robert T. Gannett Jr.; Part III. Themes: 9. Tocqueville and civil society Dana Villa; 10. Tocqueville on threats to liberty in democracies Melvin Richter; 11. Tocqueville and democratic religious experience Joshua Mitchell; 12. Tocqueville on fraternity and fratricide Cheryl B. Welch; Part IV. Two Traditions: 13. Tocqueville and the French Françoise Mélonio; 14. Tocqueville and the Americans: Democracy in America as read in nineteenth-century America Olivier Zunz.