Political Biographies

This is the story of Gandhi's spiritual evolution—the turning points and choices that made him not just a great political leader but also a timeless icon of nonviolence. Eknath Easwaran grew up in India and witnessed how Gandhi inspired people of all races, backgrounds, and religions to turn anger into compassion and hatred into love. How had Gandhi transformed himself...

The first biography of Henry VIII's court fool William Somer, a legendary entertainer and one of the most intriguing figures of the Tudor age. In some portraits of Henry VIII, there appears another striking figure—a gaunt and morose-looking man with a shaved head and, in one case, a monkey on his shoulder. This is William or 'Will' Somer, the king's...

This is a highly readable history focusing on the succession of the rulers of imperial Rome. It uses timelines with at-a-glance visual guides to each reign and its main events, to provide biographical portraits of the 56 principal emperors from Augustus to Constantine, together with a concluding section on the later emperors. Each section is illustrated with busts of each...

Carl Schmitt is one of the most widely read and influential German thinkers of the twentieth century. His fundamental works on friend and enemy, legality and legitimacy, dictatorship, political theology, and the concept of the political are read today with great interest by everyone from conservative Catholic theologians to radical political thinkers on the left. In his private life, however,...

Stigmatized and relegated to the margins of Roman society, the Goths were violent "barbarians" who destroyed "civilisation," at least in the conventional story of Rome's collapse. But a slight shift of perspective brings their history, and ours, shockingly alive. Alaric grew up near the river border that separated Gothic territory from Roman. He survived a border policy that separated migrant...

The instant Sunday Times bestseller A Times, BBC History Magazine and Daily Mail Book of the Year The UK’s bestselling medieval historian brings unforgettably to life the astonishing rise of Henry V, who survived rebellion, a near-fatal arrow wound and a lengthy and precarious princely apprenticeship to become England’s greatest warrior king. 'A historian who writes as addictively as any...

A riotous biography of the charismatic ruler of 18th-century Poland and Saxony, and his catastrophic reign. Augustus The Strong is one of the great what-ifs of the 18th century. He could have turned the accident of ruling two major realms into the basis for a powerful European state—a bulwark against the Russians and a block on Prussian expansion. Alas, there...

It began with a call from a screenwriter, asking about a story. Your family. WWII. Nazis spies. Christine Kuehn was shocked and confused. When she asked her 70-year-old father, Eberhard, what this could possibly be about, he stalled, deflected, demurred, and then he wept. He knew this day would come. The Kuehns, a once prominent Berlin family, saw the rise...

In 1600, English helmsman William Adams washed ashore in Japan and was interrogated by Tokugawa Ieyasu, Japan's most powerful warlord and soon-to-be shogun. Far from executing Adams as a pirate, Ieyasu made him one of his most trusted advisers. This biography traces Adams's rise from humble pilot to a position of immense influence in Japan's foreign relations. It unravels the...

With a new introduction and concluding chapter from bestselling medieval author Dan Jones. Richard III is one of the most mysterious figures in English history and is, as such, a source of perennial fascination. Comparatively little is known of his early life, his appearance, and his interests. Up to 1483, he played second fiddle to his more glorious older brothers,...

Eleanor of Aquitaine (1124-1204), the legendary queen of France and later England, has captivated historians for centuries. Heiress to the duchy of Aquitaine, wife to King Henry II, and mother to Richard the Lionheart and King John, her life was marked by power, influence, and myth. This concise, accessible history sheds new light on Eleanor, cutting through the hearsay and...

A powerful, candid, and richly detailed memoir from an American icon, revealing what life looks like after the presidency: triumphs, tribulations, and all. On 20th January 2001, after nearly thirty years in politics — eight of them as President of the United States — Bill Clinton was suddenly a private citizen. Only fifty-four years old, full of energy and ideas,...

A pioneering politician and diplomat, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (1900–1990) was an Indian icon, admired worldwide for her brilliance and glamour. Eleanor Roosevelt called her “the most remarkable woman” she had ever met. Madame Pandit, as she was widely known, moved in elite global circles even as she worked to improve the lives of millions. She traded quips with Winston Churchill,...

A portrait of the Athenian politician and general Themistocles, tracing his political development, his victory at the Battle of Salamis, and his exile in Persia. Themistocles (524–459 BC) came of age just as a newly democratic and empowered Athens was emerging. He would become an instrumental political and military figure, fighting in the Battle of Marathon; persuading Athenians to expand...

Millions of innocent people were arrested in Stalin's Soviet Union during the 1930s in different waves of mass repression. Under violent interrogation, many were forced to confess to crimes they did not commit. Rather than save their lives, as the interrogators had promised, confession was usually the last step to their execution. Very few of those arrested eventually refused to...

A gripping biography of a man who escaped slavery to become an influential abolitionist, famously known as the "King of the Underground Railroad". Jermain Wesley Loguen (1813–1872) was a fugitive from slavery, an abolitionist, and a minister, teacher, and political activist. He worked alongside Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, and his home in Syracuse, New York, was among the most...

The tragic story of ancient Greece's last democratic leader and his doomed fight to save Athens from Macedonian domination. In the spring of 340 BCE, news arrived that Philip of Macedon had seized a town in central Greece, a base from which he could march on Athens. In the fierce debates about how to respond to the rising threat in...

An authoritative biography of Thomas Arundel, the English archbishop who overthrew a king Thomas Arundel was a pivotal figure in English politics at the turn of the fifteenth century. His career began in 1373 when, at the age of just twenty, he was ordained as bishop of Ely. By 1396, he had become archbishop of Canterbury, but after being exiled...

How the wisdom of Herodotus can fortify us against political falsehoods and violent extremism Nearly 2,500 years ago, the Greek writer Herodotus introduced the concept of objective truth derived from factual investigation and empirical deduction. Writing just before the start of the catastrophic Peloponnesian War (431–404 BCE), Herodotus addressed an increasingly polarized Greek world. His Histories demonstrates that the capacity...

A fresh, original look at George Washington as an innovative land manager whose singular passion for farming would unexpectedly lead him to reject slavery. George Washington spent more of his working life farming than he did at war or in political office. For over forty years, he devoted himself to the improvement of agriculture, which he saw as the means...

In the wake of the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of France, and Pope Pius VII shared a common goal: to reconcile the church with the state. But while they were able to work together initially, formalizing an agreement in 1801, relations between them rapidly deteriorated. In 1809, Napoleon ordered the Pope’s arrest. Ambrogio Caiani provides a pioneering account...

A portrait of empire through the biographies of a Native American, a Pacific Islander, and the British artist who painted them both Three interconnected eighteenth-century lives offer a fresh account of the British empire and its intrusion into Indigenous societies. This engaging history brings together the stories of Joshua Reynolds and two Indigenous men, the Cherokee Ostenaco and the Ra‘iatean...

Machiavelli praised his military genius. European royalty sought out his secret elixir against poison. His life inspired Mozart's first opera, while for centuries poets and playwrights recited bloody, romantic tales of his victories, defeats, intrigues, concubines, and mysterious death. But until now, no modern historian has recounted the full story of Mithradates, the ruthless king and visionary rebel who challenged...

Since the beginning of time, mankind has struggled with the big questions surrounding our existence. Whilst most people have heard of Socrates, Machiavelli, and Nietzsche, many are less clear on their theories and key concepts. In The Great Philosophers, bestselling author Stephen Law condenses and deciphers their fundamental ideas. Avoiding the technical jargon and complex logic associated with most books...

A leading expert reexamines history to offer a stunningly original portrait of Hitler as a competent military commander and strategist. After Germany’s humiliating World War II defeat, numerous German generals published memoirs claiming that their country’s brilliant military leadership had been undermined by the Führer’s erratic decision making. The author of three highly acclaimed books on the era, Stephen Fritz...

How a strategist's ideas were catastrophically ignored in 1914—but shaped Britain’s success in the Second World War and beyond Leading historian Andrew Lambert shows how, as a lawyer, civilian, and Liberal, Julian Corbett (1854–1922) brought a new level of logic, advocacy, and intellectual precision to the development of strategy. Corbett skillfully integrated classical strategic theory, British history, and emerging trends...

A major new investigation into the Bhutto family, examining their influence in Pakistan from the colonial era to the present day "Students of geopolitics and South Asia will find this a valuable book."—Kirkus Reviews “Fluently written, impeccably researched and never short of extraordinary insights, this is a landmark publication.” —Farzana Shaikh, Literary Review The Bhutto family has long been one...

A compelling intellectual biography of Stalin told through his personal library In this engaging life of the twentieth century’s most self-consciously learned dictator, Geoffrey Roberts explores the books Stalin read, how he read them, and what they taught him. Stalin firmly believed in the transformative potential of words, and his voracious appetite for reading guided him throughout his years. A...

A compelling intellectual biography of Stalin told through his personal library "[A] fascinating new study."—Michael O'Donnell, Wall Street Journal In this engaging life of the twentieth century's most self-consciously learned dictator, Geoffrey Roberts explores the books Stalin read, how he read them, and what they taught him. Stalin firmly believed in the transformative potential of words, and his voracious appetite...

The dramatic story of a man who stood at the center of British intelligence operations, the ultimate spymaster of World War II: Thomas Kendrick. “A remarkable piece of historical detective work. . . . Now, thanks to this groundbreaking book, the result of years of meticulous research and expert analysis, Kendrick’s role as one of the great spymasters of the...

Hanley shows how Smith set forth a vision of the worthy life that is uniquely suited to people today. Full of invaluable insights on topics ranging from happiness and moderation to love and friendship, Our Great Purpose enables modern readers to see Smith in an entirely new light—and along the way, learn what it truly means to live a good...

The first English-language translation of the memoirs of Eugene Downing. Eugene Downing (1913–2003) was not your usual Irish brigader: a communist from his teenage years, an urbanised skilled worker, and an Irish language enthusiast. Downing had no immediate Republican record, joining the communist Workers Groups in Dublin just out of his apprenticeship as an electrician. Despite this backdrop, Downing spent...

An incisive account of how Mussolini pioneered populism in reaction to Hitler’s rise—and thereby reinforced his role as a model for later authoritarian leaders "A passionately engaged history of a Mussolini and an Italy caught up in the monstrous gravitational waves engendered by the coming of Third Reich."—Giuseppe Finaldi, author of Mussolini and Italian Fascism On the tenth anniversary of...

A fresh treatment of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, revealing the close ties between Mussolini and Hitler and their regimes From 1934 until 1944, Mussolini met Hitler numerous times, and the two developed a relationship that deeply affected both countries. While Germany is generally regarded as the senior power, Christian Goeschel demonstrates just how much history has underrepresented Mussolini’s influence...

Maria Theresa (1717-1780) was once the most powerful woman in Europe. At the age of twenty-three, she ascended to the throne of the Habsburg Empire, a far-flung realm composed of diverse ethnicities and languages, beset on all sides by enemies and rivals. Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger provides the definitive biography of Maria Theresa, situating this exceptional empress within her time while dispelling...

Goering's Man in Paris is a charged biography of a notorious Nazi art plunderer and his career in the postwar art world. “[Petropoulos] brings Lohse into sharper focus, as a personality and axis point from which to explore a network of art dealers, collectors and museum curators connected to Nazi looting. . . . What emerges from Petropoulos’s research is...

Failure of Empire is the first comprehensive biography of the Roman emperor Valens and his troubled reign (a.d. 364-78). Valens will always be remembered for his spectacular defeat and death at the hands of the Goths in the Battle of Adrianople. This singular misfortune won him a front-row seat among history's great losers. By the time he was killed, his...

Few legal cases in American history are as riveting as the controversy surrounding the will of Virginia Senator John Randolph (1773–1833), which — almost inexplicably — freed all 383 of his slaves in one of the largest and most publicised manumissions in American history. So famous is the case that Ta-Nehisi Coates has used it to condemn Randolph's cousin, Thomas...

During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Chinggis Khan and his heirs established the largest contiguous empire in the history of the world, extending from Korea to Hungary and from Iraq, Tibet, and Burma to Siberia. Ruling over roughly two thirds of the Old World, the Mongol Empire enabled people, ideas, and objects to traverse immense geographical and cultural boundaries. Along...

In his brief life, Alexander the Great gained fame as the military genius who conquered the known world. After death, his legend only increased. Alexander the Great (356–323 B.C.) precipitated immense historical change in the Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds. But the resonance his legend achieved over the next two millennia stretched even farther—across foreign cultures, religious traditions, and distant...

Æthelstan was perhaps the most important king of tenth-century England, but we know very little about him, and he has no modern biography. Sarah Foot triumphantly fills this gap and adds to the richness of our understanding of the period in a way that few others have managed."—Chris Wickham, author of The Inheritance Of Rome The powerful and innovative King...

You Can't Win is the beloved memoir written by criminal hobo Jack Black and first published in 1926 by Macmillan. It tells the story of one man's life during the final, dying days of America's Wild West. Black offers up thirty years' worth of personal tales of being an outlaw, cross-country stick-up man, home burglar, petty thief, and opium fiend....

William Godwin has long been known for his literary connections as the husband of Mary Wollstonecraft, the father of Mary Shelley, the friend of Coleridge, Lamb, and Hazlitt, the mentor of the young Wordsworth, Southey, and Shelley, and the opponent of Malthus. Godwin has been recently recognised, however, as the most capable exponent of philosophical anarchism, an original moral thinker,...

'A tale of buccaneering matriarchs marrying their American princess daughters to the dim-witted, cash-strapped sons of British peers... Cleverly researched, sparkling with diamonds and wickedly funny' Spectator Towards the end of the nineteenth century and for the first few years of the twentieth, a strange invasion took place in Britain. The citadel of power, privilege, and breeding in which the...

After two years of nonstop negotiations with the Russian authorities, Jean-Christophe Brisard and Lana Parshina were granted access to secret files detailing the Soviets' incredible hunt to recover Hitler's body: the layout of the bunker, plans for escaping, eyewitness accounts of the Fuhrer's final days, and human remains—a bit of skull with traces of the lethal bullet and a fragment...

Sam Pivnik is the ultimate survivor from a world that no longer exists. On fourteen occasions he should have been killed, but luck, his physical strength, and his determination not to die all played a part in Sam Pivnik living to tell his extraordinary life story. In 1939, on his thirteenth birthday, his life changed forever when the Nazis invaded...

Rosa Luxemburg is revered as one of the leading socialists of the early 20th century, whose vision for justice and equality continues to resonate throughout workers' movements today. Paul Frolich was one of the founding members of the German Communist Party and a close comrade of Luxemburg's. Striking a balance between personal insight and political analysis, he traces Rosa's development...

In 1966, the United States and Australia signed a treaty that allowed the establishment of a jointly-run satellite tracking station just south of Alice Springs. The station became known as Pine Gap. For more than 50 years, it has operated under a shroud of secrecy and has been the target of much public and political controversy. In this fascinating glimpse...

A TELEGRAPH BEST HISTORY BOOK OF 2023 ‘A highly imaginative and thought-provoking way of exploring the personality of a man who, like him or loathe him, left an indelible mark on our age’ - ADAM ZAMOYSKI Winston Churchill followed his own star. He yearned to be ‘great’, to gain historical immortality. And he did so through deeds and words: his...

A lively and provocative account of Bernard Mandeville and the work that scandalised and appalled his contemporaries and made him one of the most influential thinkers of the eighteenth century. In 1714, doctor, philosopher, and writer Bernard Mandeville published The Fable of the Bees, a humorous tale in which a prosperous hive full of greedy and licentious bees trade their...

In Leon Trotsky, Paul Le Blanc delves deep to understand Trotsky's complex character, relationships, actions, and ideas. Interweaving dramatic historical events with Trotsky's multi-faceted personality, this book explores his involvement with and opposition to the Soviet bureaucracy, and his efforts to revitalise the revolutionary wing of the labour movement. Revealed here are his urgent warnings of Hitler's rise and the...

Julius II was one of the most remarkable and colourful men ever to sit on the papal throne. His vigour, determination, ambition, passion for action, and notorious temper were more suited to the soldier he probably would have preferred to be than to the ecclesiastical potentate he became under the patronage of his uncle, Pope Sixtus IV. As a cardinal...

Johannes Gutenberg is famous as the inventor of Europe's first typographic printing method, and his life and legacy have long fascinated a wide audience. Due to scant and vague fifteenth-century documentation, however, Gutenberg's career has long been obscured by derivative storytelling, competing agendas and scholarly guesswork. This new biography removes these barriers to retell his story directly, through his pioneering...

Jérémie Gallon paints an intriguing portrait of the master of Realpolitik, drawing lessons from Henry Kissinger's life and actions to explore the creation of a more coherent and resilient foreign policy, particularly in Europe. Chapters address themes, moments, and characters that shaped Kissinger's career, such as the Harvard years, the centrality of Realpolitik, Jewishness, even football, and his relationships with...

Emma Gatewood told her family she was going on a walk and left her small Ohio hometown with a change of clothes and less than two hundred dollars. The next anybody heard from her, this genteel, farm-reared, sixty-seven-year-old great-grandmother had walked 800 miles along the 2,050-mile Appalachian Trail. By September 1955, she stood atop Maine's Mount Katahdin, sang "America, the...

An unvarnished, critical graphic biography of the tech innovator and presidential confidant by the author/illustrator of Putin's Russia- The Rise of a Dictator and Billionaires- The Lives of the Rich and Powerful. An unvarnished, critical graphic biography of the tech innovator and former presidential confidant by the author/illustrator of Putin's Russia- The Rise of a Dictator and Billionaires- The Lives...

Robin Rothfield spent most of his early professional years conducting censuses of agriculture in developing countries, culminating in the Fiji Census of Agriculture, which he published in 1978 as the FAO Regional Statistician. He was employed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 1985 for 16 years but was dismissed in 2001. The reason for his dismissal was largely due...

A pioneering political voice, with charisma and power that rivalled many of her male contemporaries, Clodia of Rome was a pivotal figure in the late Roman Republic until a murder trial, rife with corruption, catalysed her fall from grace. Taking readers inside the courtroom to follow the trial and Clodia's family's tumultuous political history, Douglas Boin brings a modern perspective...

A critical biography of the quietly inventive Renaissance architect. Filippo Brunelleschi is at once the most famous and most misunderstood architect of the Renaissance. The founding architect of the movement that led the way to modernity, his originality was not expressed in words or theory but rather in the materials he used, the scenography of space he engineered, the ingenuity...

An Instant New York Times Bestseller! A revealing account of National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster’s turbulent and consequential thirteen months in the Trump White House. At War with Ourselves is the story of helping a disruptive President drive necessary shifts in U.S. foreign policy at a critical moment in history. McMaster entered an administration beset by conflict and the hyper-partisanship...

Chosen as a Book of the Year in the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail 'A masterpiece' - Frederick Forsyth 'Beautifully written... unlikely to be surpassed' - Simon Heffer 'Superb' - Daily Mail, Book of the Week 'Terrific' - Observer Throughout history, there have been many long-running rivalries between party leaders, but there has never been a connection like that between...

At his death in 323 BC, Alexander the Great ruled an empire stretching from the Balkans to India, yet the best accounts we have of his life were written hundreds of years after his death. Alexander the Great presents new translations of the most important ancient writings on Alexander's life and legacy. Substantial extracts from Greek and Latin authors are...

In 2015, Setsuko Nakamura Thurlow proclaimed at the United Nations, ‘Humanity and nuclear weapons cannot coexist.’ She knew this from first-hand experience: when she was thirteen, her hometown of Hiroshima was annihilated by an atomic bomb. Since 1945, with a resolve befitting her samurai ancestors, she has dedicated her life to warning the world about the horrors of nuclear attack....

'For anyone who wants to understand the history of America and the world, this is a useful and important book' ANNE APPLEBAUM 'A biographer of genius ... One of the sharpest political pens of our day' WILLIAM DALRYMPLE 'A towering achievement. A book which is founded on deep scholarship, yet so accessible and readable from the very beginning that it...

From the moment Mary, Queen of Scots set foot on English soil in 1568 until her execution at Fotheringhay Castle on 8 February 1587, she was the prisoner of her cousin, Elizabeth I. Unlike Mary's time on the Scottish throne, the dramatic events of these years—almost half her life—took place while she was a captive. But while trouble was perpetually...

From two Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists comes a masterpiece of narrative reporting and the explosive, definitive account of Donald Trump's wealth - what he had, and what he lost. Inheritance. Fraud. Deceit. The devastating exposé of Trump's financial failings that you need to read to understand the man whose deals are destroying the world economy. 'A first-rate financial thriller' NEW YORK...

Ideological schisms have always been a feature of the left, but for much of the early twentieth century, they could be deadly. Few revolutionary figures managed to chart such a unique course through the turbulent currents of anarchism and Bolshevism as Victor Serge. Today, thanks to his classic memoirs and novels, Serge is highly esteemed by virtually all segments of...

Shortlist, Cundill History Prize "The extraordinary untold story of how a disillusioned American diplomat named William C. Bullitt came to Freud's couch in 1926, and how Freud and his patient collaborated on a psychobiography of President Woodrow Wilson." – Wall Street Journal "A vivid shaggy-dog story about a curio that illuminates the possibilities (and perils) of studying the psychological soundness...

A concise and highly readable biography…[Hancock's] legacy is very much worth our remembering. -Wall Street Journal King Hancock is a vastly enjoyable work of popular history that wears its impressive scholarship lightly. It deftly explains the wider forces that unravelled the colonists' close bonds with the mother country. The book also features an almost tactile account of what it was...

The first book-length study of John Frémont's time in Missouri written since the Civil War, revealing the story of the first enslaved person ever set free by military order of the United States and exploring six campaigns in the Trans-Mississippi theatre. For one hundred days in 1861, John Frémont was the general in charge of the United States Army’s Western...

A landmark biography of one of the most notorious and controversial protagonists of the French Revolution—Jean-Paul Marat. Who better to pen an authoritative biography of Jean-Paul Marat (1743–93) than the preeminent historian of France, Keith Michael Baker? Decades in the making, this monumental work takes readers on a journey through the intriguing, sometimes shocking life of this writer and thinker....

Why are the best leaders the ones who are most adept at following? What should we expect of those who have the privilege of leading? And what may leaders expect of those who follow them? Drawing upon a military career spanning more than four decades, General Martin Dempsey, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, examines the limits of...

Explains his influence on the military, law, politics, and religion. Get the real story of Napoleon Bonaparte. Not sure what's true about Napoleon? This easy-to-follow guide gets past the stereotypes and introduces you to this extraordinary man's beginnings, accomplishments, and famous romances. It traces Napoleon's rise from Corsican military cadet to Emperor of the French, chronicles his military campaigns, explains...

An insider’s perspective on the life and influence of Israel’s first native-born prime minister, his bold peace initiatives, and his tragic assassination More than two decades have passed since prime minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination in 1995, yet he remains an unusually intriguing and admired modern leader. A native-born Israeli, Rabin became an inextricable part of his nation’s pre-state history and...

William II, better known as William Rufus, was the third son of William the Conqueror and England's king for only 13 years (1087-1100) before he was mysteriously assassinated. In this vivid biography, here updated and reissued with a new preface, Frank Barlow reveals an unconventional, flamboyant William Rufus—a far more attractive and interesting monarch than previously believed. Weaving an intimate...

"Lively and delightful zooms in on the faces in the crowd to help us understand both the depth and the diversity of the women's suffrage movement. Some women went to jail. Others climbed mountains. Visual artists, dancers, and journalists all played a part. Far from perfect, they used their own abilities, defects, and opportunities to build a movement that still...

A fascinating and moving biography of Colin Anson, the German refugee who became an elite British commando Born in Germany in 1922, Colin Anson's (Claus Ascher) childhood was marked by the trials of Nazism. His father was arrested by the Gestapo in 1937 and transported to Dachau, where he died shortly after. Colin, aged just seventeen, escaped to Britain in...

From the leading Wellington historian, a fascinating reassessment of the Duke’s most famous victory and his role in the turbulent politics after Waterloo. Wellington’s momentous victory over Napoleon was the culminating point of a brilliant military career. Yet Wellington’s achievements were far from over: he commanded the allied army of occupation in France to the end of 1818, returned home...

Discover how the Oval Office’s occupants have made and make history Which one was the tallest? Which one fought a duel? Which had liquor smuggled into the White House during Prohibition? And why is the president even called the president in the first place? From periwigs and knee breeches to the 24-hour news cycle and presidential Tweets, the fascinating and...

A revelatory intellectual biography of Tocqueville, told through his wide-ranging travels—most of them, aside from his journey to America, barely known. It might be the most famous journey in the history of political thought: in 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville sailed from France to the United States, spent nine months touring and observing the political culture of the fledgling republic, and...