Born July 19, 1805

Paris, France

Died April 16, 1859

Cannes, France

French writer who first defined the meaning of American as a new nationality

Alexis de Tocqueville. AP/World Wide Photos.

"[Americans] seem to me stinking with national conceit; it pierces through all their courtesy."

Alexis de Tocqueville was a French aristocrat, or member of the upper class, sent to the United States in 1831 to study American prisons. He kept a detailed diary of his nine-month visit, and later wrote a book, Democracy in America. Tocqueville's journals and book described the ordinary, day-today aspects of American society. He thought that democracy could explain the many differences between the habits of Americans and the habits of Europeans, but it might be just as accurate to say that American society reflected the differences that emerged as a result of emigration. His writing addressed the issue of just what...