My interest in Tocqueville, aside from the fact that he is the author of a book that some regard as the best thing ever written about 19th century America and its politics, derives from the fact that, just months after he published the first volume of Democracy in America in January 1835, Tocqueville set out for Ireland, again accompanied by de Beaumont.

Despite his aristocratic background, he saw the triumph of democracy as inevitable and, although anxious about the potential threat of legislative tyranny, saw the American example as evidence that democracy could be reconciled with liberty. His conclusion was that: 'there will be no middle way between the empire of democracy and the yoke of one man'. In his famous book, Tocqueville, with the recent, tempestuous history of France weighing on his mind, examined the moderate, evolutionary character of American democracy and sought to identify the reasons behind its success. It focuses on the French aristocrat, Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859), who is renowned as the author of Democracy in America, his reflections on America gleaned during the nine months he spent there in 1831/32 in the company of his traveling companion, Gustave de Beaumont. They had come to study the American penal system, but Tocqueville was drawn to make a more thoroughgoing analysis of American society and politics. This is my second blog on aspects of Irish-American history and it may be considered an unusual one, in that its subject is neither Irish nor American.

Alexis de Tocqueville in America and Ireland 1831-1835

Tocqueville democracy