The book proposes a new interpretation of Alexis de Tocqueville that views him first and foremost as a social scientist rather than as a political theorist. Drawing on his earlier work on the explanation of social behavior, Elster argues that Tocqueville's main claim to our attention today rests on the large number of exportable causal mechanisms to be found in his work, many of which are still worthy of further exploration. Elster proposes a novel reading of Democracy in America in which the key explanatory variable is the rapid economic and political turnover rather than equality of wealth at any given point in time. He also offers a reading of The Ancien Régime and the Revolution as grounded in the psychological relations among the peasantry, the bourgeoisie, and the nobility. Consistently going beyond exegetical commentary, he argues that Tocqueville is eminently worth reading today for his substantive and methodological insights.
| |||||||||||||||
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Elster's jeweler's eye has seen into the hidden intricacies and profundities of Tocqueville the political psychologist and comparative social historian. A sumptuous, stringent and path-breaking book."
-Stephen Holmes, New York University School of Law
"The long battle over the thought of one of the nineteenth century's most enigmatic figures continues here with the publication of Jon Elster's Alexis de Tocqueville, the First Social Scientist. With characteristic care and incisiveness, Elster explores insights embedded in Tocqueville great works, Democracy in America and The Ancien Régime and the Revolution, with a view to the question: does social science begin here? This book lays the groundwork for what ought to be an ongoing conversation among social scientists intent on exploring the origins of their field. No serious readers of Tocqueville will return to his writings without Elster's question in the back of their minds."
-Joshua Mitchell, Georgetown University
"Apart for his own contributions to social theorizing, Elster is famous for his skills of 'making sense' of the work of classical writers in social thought. In this book, he mines the plentiful repository of de Tocqueville's Democracy in America and Ancien Regime. The author finds, apart from limited instances of 'elusive', 'muddled', and 'extravagant' rhetoric, an amazing number of original and fine-grained causal mechanisms that Tocqueville pioneered to employ in his effort to explain social phenomena and change. Elster's method of 'extracting', 'reconstructing', and 'decoding' through sophisticated interrogation the French democratic aristocrat's writings brings to light a number of 'exportable' causal mechanisms. They can enrich the toolbox of today's social scientists. In the process, the book's provocative title becomes ever more plausible."
-Claus Offe, Hertie School of Governance, Berlin
"In this remarkable book, Jon Elster makes Tocqueville's conceptual system a critical part of a large intellectual project. Dubbing Tocqueville the 'first' social scientist, Elster focuses on how he thought rather than on what he found. He brilliantly explains Tocqueville's seemingly contradictory formulations and ambiguities of language as iterations in search of causal linkages. We can profitably use Elster's Tocqueville for making sense of our own social state."
-Olivier Zunz, University of Virginia
-Stephen Holmes, New York University School of Law
"The long battle over the thought of one of the nineteenth century's most enigmatic figures continues here with the publication of Jon Elster's Alexis de Tocqueville, the First Social Scientist. With characteristic care and incisiveness, Elster explores insights embedded in Tocqueville great works, Democracy in America and The Ancien Régime and the Revolution, with a view to the question: does social science begin here? This book lays the groundwork for what ought to be an ongoing conversation among social scientists intent on exploring the origins of their field. No serious readers of Tocqueville will return to his writings without Elster's question in the back of their minds."
-Joshua Mitchell, Georgetown University
"Apart for his own contributions to social theorizing, Elster is famous for his skills of 'making sense' of the work of classical writers in social thought. In this book, he mines the plentiful repository of de Tocqueville's Democracy in America and Ancien Regime. The author finds, apart from limited instances of 'elusive', 'muddled', and 'extravagant' rhetoric, an amazing number of original and fine-grained causal mechanisms that Tocqueville pioneered to employ in his effort to explain social phenomena and change. Elster's method of 'extracting', 'reconstructing', and 'decoding' through sophisticated interrogation the French democratic aristocrat's writings brings to light a number of 'exportable' causal mechanisms. They can enrich the toolbox of today's social scientists. In the process, the book's provocative title becomes ever more plausible."
-Claus Offe, Hertie School of Governance, Berlin
"In this remarkable book, Jon Elster makes Tocqueville's conceptual system a critical part of a large intellectual project. Dubbing Tocqueville the 'first' social scientist, Elster focuses on how he thought rather than on what he found. He brilliantly explains Tocqueville's seemingly contradictory formulations and ambiguities of language as iterations in search of causal linkages. We can profitably use Elster's Tocqueville for making sense of our own social state."
-Olivier Zunz, University of Virginia
Book Description
The book proposes a new interpretation of Alexis de Tocqueville that views him first and foremost as a social scientist rather than a political theorist. Consistently going beyond exegetical commentary, Elster argues that Tocqueville is eminently worth reading today for his substantive and methodological insights.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book if you want to understand Tocqueville the sociologist,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Alexis de Tocqueville, the First Social Scientist (Paperback)
Tocqueville is occasionally overlooked in the field of sociology. This book does a great job of outlining Tocequeville's theories and contributions to the social sciences. Easy to read, and broken down into relevant sections discussing common themes in sociology, this book would be a great addition to any aspiring sociologist's personal library of study.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence:
The title of this book places me in a minority position on two separate counts. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
preference formation, social equilibrium, static equality, dynamic equality, black envy, belief formation Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, French Revolution, Democratic Government, Patterns of Social Causality, Are There Classes, National Assembly, John Stuart Mill, Supreme Court Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
The title of this book places me in a minority position on two separate counts. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
preference formation, social equilibrium, static equality, dynamic equality, black envy, belief formation Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, French Revolution, Democratic Government, Patterns of Social Causality, Are There Classes, National Assembly, John Stuart Mill, Supreme Court Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
