{"product_id":"tocqueville-between-two-worlds-the-making-of-a-political-and-theoretical-life","title":"Tocqueville Between Two Worlds: The Making of a Political and Theoretical Life","description":"\u003cp\u003eAlexis de Tocqueville may be the most influential political thinker in American history. He also led an unusually active and ambitious career in French politics. In this magisterial book  one of Americas most important contemporary theorists draws on decades of research and thought to present the first work that fully connects Tocquevilles political and theoretical lives. In doing so  Sheldon Wolin presents sweeping new interpretations of Tocquevilles major works and of his place in intellectual history. As he traces the origins and impact of Tocquevilles ideas  Wolin also offers a profound commentary on the general trajectory of Western political life over the past two hundred years.  Wolin proceeds by examining Tocquevilles key writings in light of his experiences in the troubled world of French politics. He portrays Democracy in America  for example  as a theory of discovery that emerged from Tocquevilles contrasting experiences of America and of Frances constitutional monarchy. He shows us how Tocqueville used Recollections to reexamine his political commitments in light of the revolutions of 1848 and the threat of socialism. He portrays The Old Regime and the French Revolution as a work of theoretical history designed to throw light on the Bonapartist despotism he saw around him. Throughout  Wolin highlights the tensions between Tocquevilles ideas and his activities as a politician  arguing that--despite his limited political success--Tocqueville was perhaps the last influential theorist who can be said to have truly cared about political life.  In the course of the book  Wolin also shows that Tocqueville struggled with many of the forces that constrain politics today  including the relentless advance of capitalism  of science and technology  and of state bureaucracy. He concludes that Tocquevilles insights and anxieties about the impotence of politics in a postaristocratic era speak directly to the challenges of our own postdemocratic age. A monumental new study of Tocqueville  this is also a rich and provocative work about the past  the present  and the future of democratic life in America and abroad.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44984104943669,"sku":"ByrdShop_0691074364","price":97.76,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780691074368.jpg?v=1770823204","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/tocqueville-between-two-worlds-the-making-of-a-political-and-theoretical-life","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}