Full Description
The Anthem Companion to Alexis de Tocqueville contains original interpretations of Tocqueville's major writings on democracy and revolution as well as his lesser-known ideas on colonies, prisons, and minorities. The Introduction by Daniel Gordon discusses the process by which Tocqueville was canonized during the Cold War and the need to reassess the place of Tocqueville's voice in the conversation of post-Marxist social theory. Each of the contributors compares Tocqueville's ideas on a given subject to those of other major social theorists, including Bourdieu, Dahl, Du Bois, Foucault, Lévi-Strauss and Marx.
This comprehensive volume is based on the idea that Tocqueville was not merely a "founder" or "precursor" whose ideas have been absorbed into modern social science. The broad questions that Tocqueville raised, his comparative vision, and his unique vocabulary and style can inspire deeper thinking in the social sciences today.
Contents
Editor's Introduction: Tocqueville and the Sociological Conversation, Daniel Gordon; A Note on References to Democracy in America; Part 1. Religion and Immaterial Interests; 1. Tocqueville on Religion, Raymond Hain; 2. Unmasking Religion: Marx's Stance, Tocqueville's Alternative, Peter Baehr; Part 2. Language, Literature and Social Theory; 3. Tocqueville Mortal and Immortal: Power and Style, Judith Adler; 4. Tocqueville and Linguistic Innovation, Daniel Gordon; Part 3. Globalism and Empire; 5. Noble Comparisons, Andreas Hess; 6. Tocqueville and Lévi-Strauss: Democratic Revolution at Bookends of Empire, Andrew Dausch; Part 4. Inequalities Inside Democracy; 7. 'The Tenacious Color-Line': Tocqueville's Thought in a Post-Du Boisian World, Patrick H. Breen; 8. 'The Whole Moral and Intellectual State of a People': Tocqueville on Men, Women and Mores in the United States and Europe, Jean Elisabeth Pedersen; Part 5. Citizenship, Participation and Punishment; 9. The Dynamics of Political Equality in Rousseau, Tocqueville and Beyond, Peter Breiner; 10. Tocqueville and Beaumont on the US Penitentiary System, Chris Barker; Part 6. An Unfinished Project; 11. Tocqueville and the French Revolution, Patrice Higonnet and Daniel Gordon; Index.
