Tocqueville, Alexis de, << TOHK vihl or tawk VEEL, ah lehk SEE duh >> (1805-1859), was a French historian and political philosopher. He became famous for his book Democracy in America (1835-1840), a study of political and social institutions in the United States. His other classic work, The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856), describes how government policies and conflicts between the upper class and other classes caused the French Revolution (1789-1799).
Unlike many thinkers of his time, Tocqueville believed the spread of some form of democratic government was inevitable. In Democracy in America, he analyzed what made free societies work and discussed the good and bad aspects of social equality. He warned that the “tyranny of the majority” would put great pressure on people to act like everyone else. As a result, democracy would tend to smother individuality and personal freedom. Tocqueville wrote the book after visiting the United States in 1831 and 1832.
Tocqueville was born in Paris into an aristocratic family on July 29, 1805. He served in the French legislature from 1839 to 1851 and briefly held the post of foreign minister in 1849. He died on April 16, 1859.
