Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, first published in 1835, is one of the most penetrating analyses of American society and government ever written. Based on his travels through the United States in 1831–1832, Tocqueville examines the mechanisms of American democracy — elections, juries, local government, the press, voluntary associations — and probes the social conditions, particularly equality, that make democratic life possible and dangerous.
More than a historical document, Democracy in America remains a living text for debates about freedom, equality, and the tensions inherent in democratic governance. Download this free EPUB for Volume 1 of a work that has shaped political thought for nearly two centuries.