Lot 156
  • 156

Tocqueville, Alexis de

Estimate
25,000 - 35,000 USD
Log in to view results
bidding is closed

Description

De la démocratie en Amérique.  Paris: Charles Gosselin, 1835, 1840



4 vols., 8vo (81/8  x 5  in.; 205 x 128 mm).  Handcolored folding lithographed map after Tocqueville by Benard, half-titles;  map with 11/2 in. tear at fold, vol. 1 with some light browning and some marginal dampstaining.  1/4 calf gilt, mottled boards; some wear to joints and spine ends, Copley bookplate on pastedowns.

Literature

Clark 3:111(1); Howes T278; Sabin 96060, 96061

Catalogue Note

First edition of both parts.  One of the most penetrating political and social analyses of the United States ever written, De la démocratie en Amérique is based on Tocqueville's travels through America in 1831 and 1832 with Gustave Auguste de Beaumont.  Charged by the French government to study the prison system of the United States, the two officials made a sweeping tour of the west and south after completing their penal studies in the east, visiting Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, the Carolinas, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, D. C.