Arthur Goldhammer has translated more than one hundred works from the French, including Tocqueville's Democracy in America and The Ancien R�gime and the French Revolution. He is an affiliate of the Center for European Studies at Harvard University and a member of the editorial board of French Politics, Culture, and Society. Olivier Zunz is Commonwealth Professor of History at the University of Virginia. He edited (with Alan S. Kahan) The Tocqueville Reader: A Life in Letters and Politics, authored Why the American Century?, and served as president of The Tocqueville Society/La Soci�t� Tocqueville.
[M]agnificent and truly authoritative new edition.... essential
reading for all who want to understand modern revolution, as well
as the perspicacious eye, human greatness, and inimitable pen, of
Alexis de Tocqueville.-- "New Criterion"
Especially considering the dispersion of the original letters and
the travel notebooks over several different volumes of Gallimard's
Oeuvres compl�tes and of the Pl�iade edition, it is useful to have
all the materials related to the American journey together in one
handy volume. In addition, the fact that we have here not just
Tocqueville's voice but also that of his travel companion Beaumont
is more than an added bonus. The comparison with Beaumont, as this
volume makes clear, is crucial for understanding how the actual
journey impacted the two friends in very different ways. In
addition, the letters and other writings are beautifully translated
by the unparalleled Arthur Goldhammer, and the footnotes and
scholarly apparatus are meticulously researched as well as
user-friendly. All in all, Tocqueville and Beaumont in America is a
worthy and important addition to the ever-increasing volume of
Tocqueville's translated oeuvre.--Annelien de Dijn "H-France
Review"
Here, for the first time in English, are the primary documents for
understanding Alexis de Tocqueville's famous commentary on
Democracy in America. Olivier Zunz's learned, judicious, and fluent
introduction identifies Tocqueville's sources of information and
compares his impressions with those of his companion Beaumont. An
essential book for the history, political science, and sociology of
America.--Daniel Walker Howe, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of What
Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848
Lucidly translated, excellently edited, and handsomely produced,
this superb volume offers a unique collection of the views of
Tocqueville and Beaumont on early America. Their abundant
correspondence and travel notes, written during their journey
through the US, allows readers to follow the flow of impressions
and perspectives that culminated in Tocqueville's classic Democracy
in America (1835). This edition also does full justice to the
thought of Gustave de Beaumont....Indispensible reading for anyone
interested in Tocqueville or in early US politics and society.
Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries-- "CHOICE"
The past few years have been kind to Tocqueville (Democracy in
America) followed by two new translations of Tocqueville's Letters
from America. Last year's translation by Frederick Brown included
all of Tocqueville's letters, with selected letters from Beaumont,
his partner on the 1831�32 journey to the States. This volume,
edited with commentary by noted Tocqueville scholar Zunz (coeditor,
The Tocqueville Reader) and translated by the distinguished
Goldhammer (Ctr. For European Studies, Harvard), is much more
expansive. In addition to Tocqueville's letters, it contains all of
Beaumont's letters home in their entirety, and it presents the two
men's work journals, summaries of interviews, copious excerpts from
Beaumont's subsequent novel, Marie; or, Slavery in the United
States (1835), and Tocqueville's later writings on American
democracy and the American character. Tocqueville's journal notes,
in particular, show how thorough and intelligent a researcher and
thinker he was. The volume is attractively illustrated with
Beaumont's sketches from the trip. VERDICT No serious library can
afford to be without this exceptional volume, which is translated
and edited superbly. It will give as much pleasure to casual
browsers as to serious Tocqueville scholars.-- "Library
Journal"
This compendium of letters from Zunz and Goldhammer (who previously
collaborated on a 2004 volume of Tocqueville's Democracy in
America) is not only an exceptional glimpse into 19th-century life
in America, but a wonderful and accessible companion to
Tocqueville's own classic text.-- "Publishers Weekly"
Tocqueville's Democracy in America is a book that every American
who reads should read. There's no better book on democracy and none
better on America, first home of modern democracy. Among a wave of
new translations and analyses in recent years, these two volumes
provide elegant decoration for Tocqueville's masterpiece. Frederick
Brown has edited and translated a handy collection of the letters
Tocqueville wrote while traveling through America in 1831-32,
speaking with Americans and gathering documents in preparation for
his book. Olivier Zunz and Arthur Goldhammer have produced a tome
fit for a generous gift, containing the same letters as in Mr.
Brown's collection, plus Tocqueville's travel notebooks, narrations
of his side-trip to the frontier, later letters, other writings on
America and ample selections of writings from Tocqueville's friend
and companion on the trip, Gustave de Beaumont. This book even
includes pictures of American birds that Tocqueville and Beaumont
shot so that Beaumont could paint them--thus illustrating
Tocqueville's uncanny appeal both to the left (lovers of nature)
and the right (lovers of hunting).-- "Wall Street Journal"
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
