Alexis de Tocqueville

He suffered from frequent bouts of tuberculosis and finally succumbed to the disease in 1859, aged 53.

He was born in France into an aristocratic family. His parents were Herve de Tocqueville and Louise Madeleine de Rosanbo. He father served as an Officer of the Constitutional Guard of King Louis XVI.

As a child he was educated by a home tutor, and later attended Lycee Fabert in Metz. He studied rhetoric and philosophy in college.

From 1825 to 1827, he studied law in Paris.

He acquired an unpaid apprenticeship in 1827 at the court of law in Versailles.

In 1828, he met Gustave de Beaumont who was the deputy public prosecutor at the court of Versailles. Both the men shared a common interest in history and took Francois-Pierre-Guillaume Guizot's course in the history of civilization in France.

The July Monarchy under Louis Philippe I began in 1830. He was selected as deputy of the Manche department in 1831 and held this post till 1851.

Tocqueville and Beaumont had contemplated visiting the U.S. They obtained permission from the monarchy to study the penal system in America, and began their travel in 1831.

They visited some prisons in America and made observations about the political and judicial systems prevalent there. They considered America as the ideal society and hoped to gain in-depth knowledge about the functioning of the American social system.

He is best known for his writings on political science, especially ‘Democracy in America’ which was published in two volumes. The work is regarded as one of the most comprehensive books ever written about the U.S. and is a prescribed textbook for political science courses in various colleges.