Politician and author Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859), who was born in the village of Tocqueville in France on July 29 and died on April 16, is best known for his two politically minded books, Democracy in America (1835–1840) and The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856). Tocqueville was born into an aristocratic family and lived as an aristocrat. He had no children and no strong desire to perpetuate his family's noble name. His passion was to promote human liberty in democratic times, to keep alive what was best about the old aristocracies in societies devoted to the democratic understanding of justice. Tocqueville's political career was undistinguished, but he deserves to be remembered for his literary legacy.

Democracy in America, the outgrowth of an extended visit to the United States from May 1831 until February 1832, remains the best single book written on democracy and the best book written on America. It...