Alexis de Tocqueville · 1835
Democracy in America
IntermediatePoliticsAmericaHistory
Why read it
A Frenchman visits the young United States in 1831 and writes the most perceptive analysis of democracy ever produced — including its weaknesses. Tocqueville predicted the soft despotism of the administrative state, the tyranny of the majority, and the danger of individualism atomising society. It reads like it was written last week.