Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-59) was neither a systematic thinker nor a system builder, neither a philosopher nor a historian. His subject was society—make that societies, their strengths and their ...

Alexis de Tocqueville, it’s fair to say, is more often cited than read. His oeuvre is enormous; the commonly used quotations—typically taken from Democracy in America, with a few, perhaps, coming from ...