Books by Jeremy Jennings

“The book takes us through his trip to the United States (age 19), the basis of his book, Democracy in America, as well as his less-known trips to Algeria, Italy, England and Ireland. Even on his honeymoon to Switzerland, Tocqueville found time to analyse the local system of government, expressing a ‘lofty disdain for the federal constitution of Switzerland’ which he felt was ‘the most lax, powerless, blundering and incapable that one could imagine.’ Given how smoothly Switzerland functions today, it’s quite funny; his mistakes on Algeria less so. This is a book which makes heavy use of primary sources, i.e. you are constantly reading about Tocqueville in his own voice.” Read more...

Notable Nonfiction of Early 2023

Sophie Roell, Journalist

“It’s a new history of French political thought. And it brings the story to the present. I like it because it talks about how the wish for a republican form of government is voiced in French political thought. It describes how this wish endures through all the vicissitudes of the revolutionary age, and survives as a claim of political legitimacy, vindicated eventually with the advent of the Third Republic.” Read more...

The best books on The Age of Revolution

Paschalis Kitromilides, Historian