A01=Lucien Jaume
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Alexis de Tocqueville
Amour-propre
Aristocracy
Author_Lucien Jaume
automatic-update
B06=Arthur Goldhammer
Benjamin Constant
Bourgeoisie
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=BGA
Category=DNBM1
Category=HBJD
Category=HPS
Category=JPA
Category=NHD
Category=QDTS
Christianity
Civil society
Claude Lefort
Collective consciousness
COP=United States
Counter-revolutionary
Criticism
De facto
Decentralization
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
Democracy
Democracy in America
Despotism
Doctrinaires
Emile Durkheim
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Feudalism
French nobility
Government
Gustave de Beaumont
Hypocrisy
Ideology
Individualism
Institution
Intellectual
Jansenism
Joseph de Maistre
July Monarchy
Language_English
Lecture
Legitimists
Liberalism
Literature
Modernity
Monarchism
Montesquieu
Multitude
Nobility
Orleanist
PA=Available
Philosopher
Philosophy
Pierre Leroux
Political philosophy
Politician
Politics
Politique
Popular sovereignty
Price_€20 to €50
Protestantism
PS=Active
Public opinion
Raymond Aron
Regime
Religion
Revue des deux Mondes
Romanticism
Self-interest
Social fact
Sociology
softlaunch
Soul and Body
Sovereignty
Superiority (short story)
The Age of Louis XIV
The Philosopher
The Spirit of the Laws
Universal suffrage
Victor Cousin
Voting
Wealth
Welfare state
Writing
Product details
- ISBN 9780691152042
- Weight: 624g
- Dimensions: 152 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 24 Mar 2013
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
Many American readers like to regard Alexis de Tocqueville as an honorary American and democrat--as the young French aristocrat who came to early America and, enthralled by what he saw, proceeded to write an American book explaining democratic America to itself. Yet, as Lucien Jaume argues in this acclaimed intellectual biography, Democracy in America is best understood as a French book, written primarily for the French, and overwhelmingly concerned with France. "America," Jaume says, "was merely a pretext for studying modern society and the woes of France." For Tocqueville, in short, America was a mirror for France, a way for Tocqueville to write indirectly about his own society, to engage French thinkers and debates, and to come to terms with France's aristocratic legacy. By taking seriously the idea that Tocqueville's French context is essential for understanding Democracy in America, Jaume provides a powerful and surprising new interpretation of Tocqueville's book as well as a fresh intellectual and psychological portrait of the author.
Situating Tocqueville in the context of the crisis of authority in postrevolutionary France, Jaume shows that Tocqueville was an ambivalent promoter of democracy, a man who tried to reconcile himself to the coming wave, but who was also nostalgic for the aristocratic world in which he was rooted--and who believed that it would be necessary to preserve aristocratic values in order to protect liberty under democracy. Indeed, Jaume argues that one of Tocqueville's most important and original ideas was to recognize that democracy posed the threat of a new and hidden form of despotism.
Lucien Jaume is a philosopher, political scientist, and historian of ideas. The author of a number of books, he is research director at France's Centre de Recherches Politiques de Sciences Po. He teaches in Paris, Rome, and Shanghai.
