'Alexis de Tocqueville': the first French critic of the US

The French scholar went to America in pursuit of better ideas for his own country.

By Vikram Johri

from the April 10, 2007 edition

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The 18th and 19th centuries were a tumultuous time in Europe. France, in particular, was looking to find its feet after its revolution, which had wiped out a considerable part of its nobility.

Under these circumstances, it was but natural that scholars of the age looked outward for better forms of governance. Among these, the name of French nobleman Alexis de Tocqueville must reign supreme. After a brief visit to America in 1831, he came to write the definitive book on American democracy and many of his insights remain relevant to this day.

And yet, for almost two centuries, there has been no comprehensive English-language biography of Tocqueville. That gap is now filled by Hugh Brogan's absorbing, exhaustive Alexis de Tocqueville: A Life.

Brogan, a British historian and biographer, seems to alternate throughout the biography between idealized and sharply critical views of Tocqueville.

It was the turmoil in French government, Brogan points out, that brought Tocqueville to America. The July Revolution of 1830, which led to the accession to the throne of Louise-Philippe, left Tocqueville, who had studied law, in a state of crisis. His father lost his position, his own career lost its momentum, and the very foundation of European nobility – Tocqueville's milieu – became precarious.

And so, on the pretext of studying prison reform in the United States (which at the time was considered to have the best penal system in the world), Tocqueville and close friend Gustave Beaumont took leave of France.

On his arrival to America, the fact of American democracy's success was nothing less than a shock to Tocqueville. Although he was born in 1805 – 16 years after the storming of the Bastille – Tocqueville's aristocratic family suffered greatly from the excesses of the French revolution. His grandfather and other family members and friends were guillotined and their grounds and property were confiscated.

Not surprisingly, young Tocqueville was left with a deep fear of the "tyranny" of majority rule. But once in the United States and able to observe the new nation close-up, he was forced to concede that a system of government founded on equality – the kind that Europe had never experienced – seemed to work.

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