Material Detail

This video was recorded at PLSC 114 - Introduction to Political Philosophy. With the emergence of democracies in Europe and the New World at the beginning of the nineteenth century, political philosophers began to re-evaluate the relationship between freedom and equality. Tocqueville, in particular, saw the creation of new forms of social power that presented threats to human liberty. His most famous work, Democracy in America, was written for his French countrymen who were still devoted to the restoration of the monarchy and whom Tocqueville wanted to convince that the democratic social revolution he had witnessed in America was equally representative of France's future. Reading assignment: Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, pp. 3-15, 56-65, 235-64 (Mansfield and Winthrop edition) Resources: Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, trans. Henry Reeve Electronic edition deposited and marked-up by ASGRP, theAmerican Studies Programs at the University of Virginia, June 1, 1997

Disciplines:

• Social Sciences  / Political Science