Individual Choice and History: Alexis de Tocqueville as Historian Reappraised - Softcover

Mitchell, Harvey

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521024153 ISBN 13: 9780521024150

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2008

Synopsis

Alexis de Tocqueville is recognized as one of the most important nineteenth-century historians. In this perceptive study, Harvey Mitchell examines Tocqueville's works, in particular Souvenirs of 1848 and his voluminous correspondence, to shed new light on Tocqueville's philosophy of history. Professor Mitchell exposes the tensions which Tocqueville perceived between determined actions and choice, continuity and change, asking what happens to individual liberty if it is impossible to make a clean break with the past, and if past developments continue to influence the future. Professor Mitchell draws on the full range of Tocqueville's writings to find in them a unity of thought and a deep involvement with the philosophical questions raised by historical continuity and change.

About this title

Review

"...an elegantly erudite reappraisal of Tocqueville as a historian....Mitchell provides an enticing introduction to Tocqueville....we can be grateful to historians like Mitchell." The Vancouver Sun

"This book is based on a wide and sensitive reading of the primary and secondary literature. Recommended for all university libraries." Choice

"This is an important contribution to the expanding universe of Tocqueville scholarship. Harvey Mitchell has seized upon a major dilemma in the study of Tocqueville...Mitchell is at his very best." American Historical Review

Book Description

This perceptive study of the great nineteenth-century historian reveals in de Tocqueville a unity of thought and a deep involvement with philosophical questions, in particular the struggle between historical forces and individual choice.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521024153
• ISBN 13: 9780521024150
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 308