In what remains after more than a century the greatest study of American political life, Tocqueville describes American society and explains its nature and conflicts in a historical analysis of the nation's origins among various partisan European settlers. Written with exceptional skill and enriched with scenes and portraits, this work is also more than an exploration of a collective phenomenon at a specific moment in time. Tocqueville's assessment of America is as relevant as ever, and his explanation of how democratic societies function can illuminate our own country today.