A Matter of Caste 
Colin Kidd
- Alexis de Tocqueville: Prophet of Democracy in the Age of Revolution by Hugh Brogan Buy this book
Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-59) presents several faces to the modern world. His measured acceptance of the new forces of democracy unleashed by the American and French Revolutions made him an icon of moderate centrist liberalism. However, he has also had his champions on the right, at least among sophisticated Cold Warriors determined to maintain connections with a broader liberal tradition, including, in his native France, Raymond Aron and Jean-François Revel, for whom Tocqueville’s oeuvre was the sole haven of grace and trust within a canon of modern political philosophy whose prescriptions – from right as much as left – seemed to lead to mass extermination or indoctrination.
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Colin Kidd is the author of The Forging of Races: Race and Scripture in the Protestant Atlantic World, 1600-2000. He teaches history at Glasgow University.
Other articles by this contributor:
Smut-Finder General · The Dark Side of American Liberalism
Brown v. Salmond · The Scottish Elections
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