Beginning Democracy in America

Abstract

When he returned to France from his American expedition, Alexis de Tocqueville was not sure about what to write with respect to America. He and Gustave de Beaumont initially planned to write a book together, but abandoned the idea. After brooding about what was to be his book for two years, Tocqueville eventually decided to write the first volume of Democracy in America, finishing it late in 1834. It took him much longer to complete the second volume, mainly because it was far more complex and traversed what he called “un autre terrain.” Democracy in America reflects not only democratic culture and politics in America but also the inner terrain of Tocqueville's psyche. Nevertheless, the experience of writing the second volume was almost entirely different from that of the first. While the first turned out to be, in part, a moral fable, the second was complicated by various changes and disruptions in Tocqueville's personal life, including his marriage to Mary Mottley in 1835 and the death of his mother the following year.