Alexis de Tocqueville, voyaged to the United States in 1831
to study its prisons and resumed with a affluence of wider observations that he
organized in “Democracy in America” (1835), which is known to be one of the
most significant books of the 19th century. With its incisive annotations on parity
and egoism, Tocqueville’s work vestiges a cherished explanation of America to
Europeans and of Americans to themselves.
