Theory in Practice: Theory in Practice Book

Written a century and a half ago, Democracy in America still offers the best introduction to American--indeed to democratic--politics and culture. Similarly, despite the unparalleled amount of scholarship on its subject, Tocqueville's (unfinished) The Old Regime and the French Revolution remains unsurpassed. In addition, notwithstanding these accomplishments, many scholars consider Tocqueville's Recollections his finest book. It is that perplexing endurance, so rare in modern social theory, that motivates this study: How did Tocqueville's thought achieve such conceptual strength? Why did his writings attain a classic status?

The author's argument is in three parts, each building on the one preceding it to gradually reconstruct Tocqueville's method. Each part contains two chapters, the first case study that focuses on a particular issue in the context of a specific text, and the second a theoretical discussion relating the findings to Tocqueville's work as a whole and to a method in social theory. A conclusion brings together the three strands of Tocqueville's method and illustrates their combination in Tocqueville's practice.