Alexis De Tocqueville’s Democracy in America explores the theme of a people. Its like a social study of different kinds of social groups he encountered in early America. What is the affect of the landscape on the way of life and social organization of these different groups.
This text is one that is frequently referred to later as evidence of the importance of civil society associations.
It is here from whence the phrase the “Tyranny of the Majority” comes.
Have to read this to be able to read Sheldon Wolin’s De Tocqueville Between Two Worlds which is on the Themes in Modern Political Thought syllabus.
