MEMOIR ON PAUPERISM: Does Public Charity Produce an Idle and Dependent Class of Society? [Paperback]

Alexis De Tocqueville (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1596053631 | ISBN-13: 978-1596053632 | Publication Date: February 1, 2006

[L]egal charity has not only taken freedom of movement from the English poor but also from those who are threatened by poverty. -from "Memoir on Pauperism" Inspired by a trip to England at a time when that nation was in the throes of political, social, and economic strife and poverty was rampant, political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville developed his theories on civil society as it relates to its poorest members and set them down in this 1835 essay. With keen insight, he explains: . why the richest nations have the most paupers . why private charity is more likely to alleviate poverty than government aid . how good intentions backfire to produce a chronically dependent underclass. The political and economic situations Tocqueville examines are immediately recognizable as one that haunts the world's richest nations today, and his lessons are still to be learned. This is an important book for our unsteady times. Also available from Cosimo Classics: Tocqueville's Selected Letters on Politics and Society. French writer ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE (1805-1859) was born in Paris and practiced law before embarking on travels in America to study the young nation's political experiment. The result, the two-volume Democracy in America (1835, 1840), is considered a classic discourse on 19th-century America.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

French writer ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE (1805-1859) was born in Paris and practiced law before embarking on travels in America to study the young nation's political experiment. The result, the two-volume Democracy in America (1835, 1840), is considered a classic discourse on 19th-century America.

Product Details

• Paperback: 48 pages
• Publisher: Cosimo Classics (February 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596053631
• ISBN-13: 978-1596053632
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 4.9 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #559,470 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars READ THIS!!, December 21, 2006

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DKC "bookaddictextraordinnaire" (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: MEMOIR ON PAUPERISM: Does Public Charity Produce an Idle and Dependent Class of Society? (Paperback)

Most people who are familiar with Democracy in America are aware of just how well de Toqueville's analysis of the early 19th century United States has held up to the test of time. On Pauperism is brief (miniscule in comparison) but THE BEST analysis of why the welfare state doesn't work; why private charity can work (no guarantees); and a not-cheerful, but frighteningly accurate, discussion of the apparently "wider"spread poverty of affluent nations than poor nations.
A brilliant, valuable, percipacious work which should be much more widely read. Thanks to Cosimo Pres for re-publishing it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Find where exactly the waters we're drinking from now got muddled up, October 11, 2008

By 

Quilmiense (USA/Spain) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: MEMOIR ON PAUPERISM: Does Public Charity Produce an Idle and Dependent Class of Society? (Paperback)

How Socialism crept into Western Europe

The great French man takes a look at the paradox offered by modern societies (in this case England, early 19th Century): The countries appearing to be more impoverished (are the ones with) the fewest indigents", and "among the peoples most admired for their opulence, one patr of the population is obliged to rely on the gifts of the other in order to live."

The key? Well-fare, public charity. Today it may not seem a paradox anymore, so ingrained in our righteous leftist minds it is. But Tocqueville saw it as it surreptitiously came forth, along with the Industrial Revolution. His analysis is clear-minded, cool, not coldly detached from the anguish of the miseries of the poor, but -on the contrary- interested enough to inquire into the roots of this modern paradox, which has since provided the daily fuel for the Left's demagoguery, and is the real opium of the self-blinded masses.

Tocqueville is not the Manichean the Left would like to think. His solution to the vicious cycle of wellfare-poverty-more-wellfare is not to cut through and banish it all. It is to get away with what went wrong in an originally fine idea: To cut loose from there, and return to the healthy idea of improving society, not contributing to its impoverishment.

A real diamond this book is, for its value and for its tiny size. You'll find where exactly the waters we're drinking from now got muddled up.