In 1831 at the age of twenty-five Alexis de Tocqueville made his fateful journey to America
where he observed the thrilling reality of a functioning democracy. From that moment onward
the French aristocrat would dedicate his life as a writer and politician to ending despotism in
his country and bringing it into a new age. In this ... biography leading Tocqueville expert
Olivier Zunz tells the story of a radical thinker who uniquely charged by the events of his
time both in America and France used the world as a laboratory for his political ideas--
