This Norton Critical Edition presents Tocqueville's classic text in the Henry Reeve translation. It is accompanied by detailed explanatory annotations and an introduction addressing Democracy in America's canonic and iconic place in American life.

"Backgrounds" includes seven letters offering Tocqueville's impressions of his nine-and-a-half month journey through the United States. Nine contemporary reviews, both American and European, trace Democracy in America's varied initial reception.

Thirteen "Interpretations" gauge Tocqueville's influence on American political thought and on democracy's legacy. Contributors include David Riesman, Max Lerner, Robert Nisbet, James T. Schleifer, Catherine Zuckert, Sheldon S. Wolin, Edward C. Banfield, Daniel T. Rodgers, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Sean Wilentz, Henry Steele Commager, James T. Kloppenberg, and Tamara M. Teale.

Introduction

A Note on the Text

The Text of Democracy in America

Backgrounds

TOCQUEVILLE LE'ITERS

  To Ernest de Chabrol, New York, 9 June 1831

  To M. Louis de Kergolay, Yonkers, 20 June 1831

  To Ernest de Chabrol, Hartford, 7 October 1831

  To the Countess de Tocqueville, On the Mississippi,

  25 December 1831

  To Eugene Stoffels, Paris, 21 February 1835

  To Henry Reeve, Paris, 22 March 1837

  To John Quincy Adams, Paris, 4 December 1837

REVIEWS OF DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA

  Sainte-Beuve · Le Temps, Paris, April 1835

  Pellegrino Rossi · Revue des deux mondes, July-September

  1840

 John C. Spencer · Preface to 1838 American Edition of

  Democracy in America

  · Preface to 1841 American Edition of Democracy

  in America

  The North American Review, July 1836

  The United States Democratic Review, October 1837

  The Knickerbocker; or The New York Monthly Magazine,

  September 1838

 John Stuart Mill · London Review, October 1835

  · Edinburgh Review, October 1840

Interpretations

 David Riesman · Tocqueville as Ethnographer

 Max Lerner · Tocqueville and American Civilization

 Robert Nisbet · Many Tocquevilles

 James T. Schleifer · From Egoism to Individualism

 Catherine Zuckert · Not by Preaching: Tocqueville on

  the Role of Religion in American Democracy

 Sheldon S. Wolin · Archaism and Modernity

 Edward C. Banfield · The Illiberal Tocqueville

 Daniel T, Rodgers · Of Prophets and Prophecy

 Arthur Schlesinger Jr. · Individualism and Apathy in

  Tocqueville's Democracy

 Sean Wilentz · Many Democracies: On Tocqueville and

  Jacksonian America

 Henry Steele Commager · Democracy and the Tyranny of

  the Majority

 James T. Kloppenberg · Life Everlasting: Tocqueville in

  America

 Tamara M. Teale · Tocqueville and American Legal Studies:

  The Paradox of Liberty and Destruction

Selected Bibliography