A powerful new translation of de Tocqueville’s influential look at the origins of modern France
In this penetrating study, Alexis de Tocqueville considers the French Revolution in the context of France’s history. de Tocqueville worried that although the revolutionary spirit was still alive and well, liberty was no longer its primary objective. Just as the first Republic had fallen to Napoleon and the second had succumbed to his nephew Napoleon III, he feared that all future revolutions might experience the same fate, forever imperiling the development of democracy in France.
Alexis de Tocqueville was born in 1805 to a noble French family that had survived the French Revolution. His father gained some political power under the reign of the Bourbons, and after the July Revolution of 1830, the family was exiled along with the king. Tocqueville, then twenty-five years old, stayed in France, swearing allegiance to the new government. Shortly thereafter he and a friend, Gustave de Beaumont, sought and received a government assignment to study the prison system of the United States. They arrived in America in 1831. After extensive travels across the young nation, Tocqueville wrote Democracy in America (published in two volumes in 1835 and 1840). The publication of the first volume made Tocqueville a well-known figure, but he led a quiet life, accepting modest governmental posts, traveling around Europe, and marrying an Englishwoman. In 1848, Tocqueville once again rose to political prominence after a prescient speech that foretold of revolution. After serving through the massive upheavals and overthrows of government, Tocqueville retired from political life in 1849. Always weak in health, his lung disease grew progressively worse from that period on. Moving south several times on doctor’s recommendations, Tocqueville succumbed to death in 1859, in Cannes.
你说好的希望在哪里 ——《旧制度与大革命》书评 华中师范大学 陈芝 据说托克维尔是世界上第一个指出法国大革命的诞生并不是因为生活毫无希望,而是有希望,希望却不能快速得到满足的人。生...
评分《旧制度与大革命》读书笔记 同时下的一些解读相反,这本书大概并不是一本要“告别革命”的保守主义著作,在前言中,有这么一个铿锵有力的句子:“这是青春、热情、自豪、慷慨、真诚的时代,尽管它有各种错误,人们将千秋万代纪念它,而且在长时期内,它还将使所有想腐蚀或奴...
评分托克维尔在《旧制度与大革命》写道,在18世纪中叶,由于社会根本没有政治自由,文人不仅对政界知之甚少,而且视而不见。他们在政界无所作为,甚至也看不到他人的所作所为。 接着他比较了英法两国的政治传统:在英国,研究治国之道的文人和统治国家的人是混合在一起的,一些人...
评分http://beeplin.blog.163.com/blog/static/172544160201262192954385/ 翻出了自己八年前写的《旧制度与大革命》书评~ 那时候正是研三,作为一个刚刚开始对政治经济历史之类玩意儿感兴趣的工科生,上渠敬东老师的理论课,写了这么一个四不像的期中论文。八年过去了,看到一...
评分《旧制度与大革命》这本书,根据托克维尔在前言的叙述,本来应分为两个部分——“旧制度”与“大革命”,但是作为第二部分的“大革命”尚未完成,托克维尔就去世了。因此,只出版了作为第一分部分的《旧制度与大革命》,其重在回答“法国为什么会...
雨女无瓜
评分'”不惜一切代价发财致富的欲望、对商业的嗜好、对物质利益和享受的追求,便成为最普通的感情这种感情轻而易举地散布在所有借机之中,甚至深入到一向与此无缘的阶级中,如果不加以阻止,它很快便会使整个民族萎靡堕落“' It's English ebook is available
评分“不含偏见,饱含深情”,托克维尔果然说到做到。文风洗炼,完全不同于有些唠唠叨叨、味同嚼蜡的文字。第三编第一章,论及文人的浪漫情怀对于法国大革命的推动,堪称经典。
评分名不虚传,霸气之作
评分和伯克的《革命反思》对着读,两人同所谓保守,对革命的批判出发点其实截然对立