He observed that over the previous seven hundred years the social and economic conditions of men had become more equal. He begins his book by describing the change in social conditions taking place. Before finishing Democracy in America, Tocqueville believed that Beaumont's study of the United States would prove more comprehensive and penetrating. When the first edition was published, Beaumont was working on another book, Marie, ou, L'esclavage aux États-Unis ( Marie, or, Slavery in the United States, published as two volumes in 1835), a social critique and novel describing the separation of races in a moral society and the conditions of slaves in the United States. Īfter they returned to France in February 1832, Tocqueville and Beaumont submitted their report, Du système pénitentiaire aux États-Unis et de son application en France ( On the Penitentiary System in the United States and its Application in France), in 1833. The two also briefly visited Canada, spending a few days in the summer of 1831 in what was then Lower Canada (modern-day Quebec) and Upper Canada (modern-day Ontario). They arrived in New York City in May of that year and spent nine months traveling the United States, studying the prisons and collecting information on American society, including its religious, political, and economic character. In his later letters, Tocqueville indicates that he and Beaumont used their official business as a pretext to study American society instead. In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont were sent by the French government to study the American prison system. In the book, Tocqueville examines the democratic revolution that he believed had been occurring over the previous several hundred years.
Its title literally translates to On Democracy in America, but official English translations are usually simply entitled Democracy in America. De la démocratie en Amérique at French Wikisourceĭe La Démocratie en Amérique ( French pronunciation: published in two volumes, the first in 1835 and the second in 1840) is a classic French text by Alexis de Tocqueville.
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