Alexis de Tocqueville: Journey Around America

By LegoManPilot

  • The Beginning

    Tocqueville and Beaumont are given an 18-month leave to study the penal system in the United States.
  • Period: to

    Alexis de Tocqueville: Journey to America and Democracy in America

    The beginning of Alexis de Tocqueville's journey to America, to publishing Democracy in America.

  • Departure

    They embark for America from Le Havre, France.
    For a complete chronology of the journey, see "Tocqueville's American Journey".

  • Journey

    Arrive at Newport, Rhode Island, going on to New York; thereafter they travel as far west as Green Bay, on Lake Michigan, north to Quebec and south to New Orleans.

  • Return

    Leave for France, arriving home in late March. Beaumont begins writing Du systeme penitentiaire with Tocqueville supplying facts and ideas.

  • Begins Writing Volume I

    Tocqueville begins writing Democracy in America at his parents' home in Paris, 49 rue de Verneuil.

  • Finishes Volume I

    Finishes the first part of Democracy in America.

  • Publishing Volume I

    Gosselin publishes an edition of fewer than 500 copies of Democracy in America.

  • Succession and Volume II

    The book's success leads to a second edition (the eighth edition, in 1840, will include the second and final part).

  • Writing and Publishing of Volume II

    Democracy in America, part II, is published simultaneously in Paris and in London, in a translation by Henry Reeve.