Harvey Mansfield

“Statesmanship and Party Government: A Study of Burke and Bolingbroke” (2013)

“Tocqueville: A Very Short Introduction” (2010)

As a new entry in Oxford's acclaimed Very Short Introduction series, Harvey Mansfield addresses his subject, Alexis de Tocqueville, as a thinker and explores Tocqueville's writings--not only his masterpiece, but also his secret Recollections, intended for posterity alone, and his unfinished work on his native France, The Old Regime and the Revolution. Tocqueville was a liberal, Mansfield writes, but not of the usual sort. The many elements of his life found expression in his thought: his aristocratic ancestry, his ventures in politics, his voyages abroad, his hopes and fears for America, and his disappointment with France. All his writings show a passion for political liberty and insistence on human greatness. Perhaps most important, he saw liberty not in theories, but in the practice of self-government in America. Ever an opponent of abstraction, Tocqueville offered an analysis that forces us to consider what we actually do in our politics--suggesting that theory itself may be an enemy of freedom. And that, Mansfield writes, makes him a vitally important thinker for today. Translator of an authoritative edition of Democracy in America, Harvey Mansfield here offers the fruit of decades of research and reflection in a clear, insightful, and marvelously compact introduction.

“Manliness” (2006)

“A Student's Guide to Political Philosophy (Isi Guides to the Major Disciplines)” (2001)

“Machiavelli's New Modes and Orders: A Study of the Discourses on Livy” (2001)