Arguably the preeminent scholar on Alexis de Tocqueville has written a new biography on the French aristocrat who defied aristocracy in favor of democracy. Olivier Zunz, the James Madison Professor of History at the University of Virginia, has assembled a studious work on the life of an incredibly studious man.
“The Man Who Understood Democracy: The Life of Alexis de Tocqueville” is a wonderfully written biography on the foreigner who arguably best described America politically and socially through his work “Democracy in America.”
The title of the book is indicative of its central theme. Zunz focuses less on Tocqueville the man and more on how his understanding, and his pursuit of understanding democracy shaped him, his countrymen, and the political and social landscape of the 19th and 20th centuries, especially in the West.
…