Promotional Information

A very fine piece of historical sociology. It is surprising that Tocqueville's views on empire and slavery have not been translated before; they shed light on a rather different Tocqueville-always perceptive, but here very much the empire-builder with a chauvinism not untinged with a form of racism. Here we learn not only about this new side of Tocqueville but also about Algeria as a case study in European colonization. An excellent introduction to Tocqueville the man, sociologist, and civil servant and to the early history of French Algeria. -- Robert Forster, The Johns Hopkins University

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1. Some Ideas About What Prevents The French From Having Good Colonies (1833)
Chapter 2. First Letter on Algeria (23 June 1837)
Chapter 3. Second Letter on Algeria (22 August 1837)
Chapter 4. Notes on the Koran (March 1838)
Chapter 5. Notes on the Voyage to Algeria in 1841
Chapter 6. Essay on Algeria (October 1841)
Chapter 7. Intervention in the Debate Over the Appropriation of Special Funding (1846)
Chapter 8. First Report on Algeria (1847)
Chapter 9. Second Report on Algeria (1847)
Chapter 10. The Emancipation of Slaves (1843)
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Jennifer Pitts is an assistant professor of political science at Yale University.

Reviews

A highly readable translation of Tocqueville's writings on colonization and slavery and a useful introduction of just the right length... Tocqueville's writings on colonialism, rather than revealing the limits of his liberalism, lead one to the core of it. -- Delba Winthrop Society By offering the first translation of these documents in a single volume, Pitts has provided a valuable service to the nineteenth-century specialist. The book should enhance readers' perspectives of both European liberalism and French colonialism. -- Jack B. Ridley History: Reviews of New Books As Jennifer Pitts points out in an informative and perceptive introduction to her edition and translation of Tocqueville's Writings on Empire and Slavery, his thinking remained in the mold of a nineteenth-century liberal, more sensitive to the fragility of free institutions in the French state than to the suffering of colonials. -- Klaus J. Hansen Canadian Journal of History Should be required reading for anyone interested in the history of colonialism, imperialism, liberalism and Algeria... Writings on Empire and Slavery features the clarity and depth that one expects from the author of Democracy in America. -- Michael Shurkin Patterns of Prejudice A highly useful collection. -- Daniel Lazare The Nation