Alexis de Tocqueville traveled to America in 1831 to see what the young republic was like.

The book he wrote on his return to France, Democracy in America, is far more than a trenchant analysis of one society at a particular point in time.

It just may be the best book ever written on democracy.

So uncanny is Tocqueville’s insight—so accurate his predictions—that it seems as though he were not merely describing the American identity but actually helping to create it.

What will most intrigue modern readers is how many of the observations still hold true: on the advantages of a free press, the strained relations among the races, and the threats posed to democracies by consumerism and corruption.

ALEXIS de TOCQUEVILLE (1805–1859) was a French historian best known for his classic work Democracy in America. It is considered a seminal work of political science.