Democracy in America - Volume 1
Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America is a classic French text. Tocqueville examines the democratic revolution that he believed had occurred over the previous several hundred years in the book. The French government sent Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont to study the American prison system in 1831. Tocqueville indicates in later letters that he and Beaumont used their official business as a pretext to study American society instead. They arrived in New York City in May of that year and spent nine months traveling around the country, studying prisons and gathering information about American society, including religion, politics, and economics.
