Alexis de Tocqueville

Tocqueville, Alexis de (1805–59), French historian and writer best known for the 2-volume Democracy in America, written after visiting the United States in the early 1830s. The book made him a leading European advocate of democracy, a system he believed would eventually replace the European monarchies and aristocracies. A philosopher, Tocqueville also saw the pitfalls of democracy, warning against a “tyranny of the majority” in which conformity would discourage individualism. He served in the French legislature (1839–51) and was foreign minister following the Revolution of 1848.

See also: France.