Alexis De Tocqueville

The continuation of Alexis de Tocqueville’s great meditation on the origins and meanings of the French Revolution. With his monumental work The Old Regime and the Revolution, Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59)—best known for his classic Democracy in America—envisioned a multivolume philosophical study of the origins of modern France that would examine the implications of French history on the nature and development of democratic society. Volume I, which covered the eighteenth-century background to the Revolution, was published to great acclaim in 1856. On the continuation of this project, he wrote: "When this Revolution has finished its work, [this volume] will show what that work really was, and what the new society which has come from that violent labor is, what the Revolution has taken away and what it has preserved from that old regime against which it was directed." Tocqueville died in the midst of this work. Here in Volume II is all that he had completed, including the chapters he started for a work on Napoleon, notes and analyses he made in the course of researching and writing the first volume, and his notes on his preparation for his continuation. More than ever before, readers will be able to glean how Tocqueville's account of the Revolution would have come out, had he lived to finish it. This handsomely produced volume completes the set and is essential reading for anyone interested in the French Revolution or in Tocqueville’s thought.

Dans M moire sur le paup risme, Alexis de Tocqueville examine la question de la pauvret dans les soci t s industrielles mergentes du XIXe si cle. Pr sent en 1835 la Soci t acad mique de Cherbourg, ce m moire analyse les effets de la charit l gale sur les classes sociales d favoris es. Tocqueville observe que, malgr les avanc es de la civilisation, le paup risme persiste et s'aggrave. Il attribue cette situation la mise en place de syst mes d'aide publique qui, selon lui, encouragent l'oisivet et affaiblissent les liens de solidarit entre les individus. Il critique la charit l gale, estimant qu'elle cr e une d pendance nuisible et qu'elle ne parvient pas r soudre les in galit s sociales. L'auteur retrace l' volution des classes sociales depuis le XIIe si cle, mettant en lumi re les transformations engendr es par la r volution industrielle. Il souligne que l'industrialisation, bien qu'elle ait am lior les conditions de vie pour certains, a galement engendr une nouvelle forme de pauvret . Tocqueville met en garde contre les dangers que repr sente le paup risme pour la stabilit des d mocraties, pr voyant que l'accroissement des in galit s pourrait mener des troubles sociaux. travers une analyse rigoureuse, Tocqueville propose des pistes de r flexion sur la mani re de rem dier la pauvret sans compromettre la libert individuelle. Il plaide pour des r formes sociales qui responsabilisent les individus tout en offrant un soutien adapt aux plus d munis. Ce m moire demeure une r f rence incontournable pour comprendre les d fis li s la pauvret et la justice sociale dans les soci t s modernes.