Tocqueville’s Democracy in America is only partly a book on America. It's also a book of comparative thinking and it's a book of theoretical invention. So, Democracy in America is a theory of democracy. Part of it is about America and part of it is Tocqueville’s theoretical genius pushing through.

Olivier Zunz

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A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com.

Olivier Zunz is the James Madison Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Virginia. He is among the foremost scholars of Alexis de Tocqueville and the author of The Man who Knew Democracy: The Life of Alexis de Tocqueville.

Key Highlights

• Introduction - 0:44
• Democracy in America - 2:21
• Tocqueville as Political Theorist - 15:56
• Tocqueville the Politician - 22:14
• Tocqueville's Legacy - 27:17

Key Links

The Man who Knew Democracy: The Life of Alexis de Tocqueville by Olivier Zunz

"Cancel Tocqueville?" by Tarek Masoud in the Journal of Democracy

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