In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville and his friend Gustave de Beaumont visited the United States. From Tocqueville’s copious notes of what he had seen and heard came the classic text De la Démocratie en Amérique, first published in two large volumes, one in 1835, the second in 1840. The first volume focused primarily on political society; the second, on civil society.

The Liberty Fund four-volume bilingual Democracy in America includes Eduardo Nolla’s critical edition of the French text and notes on the left-hand pages and James Schleifer’s English translation, with notes, on the right. This is the fullest historical critical edition of the Democracy, and the notes offer an extensive selection of early outlines, drafts, manuscript variants, marginalia, unpublished fragments, and other materials.

Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859) was a French writer and politician.

Eduardo Nolla is a Professor at the Universidad San Pablo-CEU, Madrid.

James T. Schleifer is emeritus Dean of the Library and Professor of History at the College of New Rochelle and has been a visiting lecturer at Yale University.

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